Iunctus Per Nex
by iRiot.Light
Summary: Death. It happens to everyone. Death ruins relationships...though strangely also strengthen them. Alex Rider and Harry Potter are two boys connected by one common factor. The death of both their parents at a very young age.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey all, just wanted to drop by and that I'm sorry. Everything is on hiatus for lack of inspiration. I had the stories planned out some time afterwards, instead of trying to wing it, and still have the plans with me, but I'm not going to continue them until I'm satisfied with my work. I've started on a new FF, but unlike my other works it's a cross over from Alex Rider and Harry Potter and planned out. It's a plot bunny that's been bothering me a while and I'm posting a little prologue to see reactions of reader.**

**I don't want to completely give up on my other stories put for now Solider's Life is permanently on Hiatus (i don't know if you can permanently put something on Hiatus or not...). I want to try updating the Need and Psychopathetics but again, it's very tough because I am rather unsatisfied with my writing. Apologies again.**

**So here's a new story I'm not at all content with the title so please give me some ideas, Iunctus Per Nex is Latin meaning United Through Death. Both stories will be changed a lot, and mostly focused on Alex Rider. Sorry for all you HP fans but I'll try to put more HP in, this idea was mainly inspired by the wonderful AR writers out there.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ALEX RIDER THEY BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING AND ANTHONY HOROWITZ RESPECTIVELY.**

Chapter One

It was bright, sunny and warm. The outside world was so happy; children were playing in the sun, men and women were basking in its warm glow. This was the worst weather for a funeral. Men wearing their black three piece suits, some tapping the ground incessantly, desperately wanting to leave the warm weather and go inside the church. Women wearing black skirts and shirts fanning themselves with funeral papers and dabbing their faces gently with handkerchiefs. All of the black, soaking up the sun's bright rays. The priest wore a black cassock reading out of a small book, saying solemn words to the attendees. It was hot and they were all sweating. Rain would have been greatly appreciated by all the attendees.

A blond haired man, with the body of a dancer stood from a faraway distance, watching the funeral from behind the cool shadows of a tree. He wore all black, like many of the attendees, but not a suit. Black leather jacket, black turtle neck, black leather pants all in contrast to his rather pale skin. Yassen Gregorovich watched closely with his cold, blue eyes as the priest closed his book, and shut his eyes saying another small prayer. He watched as the two caskets were lowered into the ground. They were to stay six feet under for the rest of the body's existence. _John. . . _a small tear fell from his eye, the first of many years. It left a small trail of water, hardly noticeable unless you were standing in front of him . . . but anyone who did that would be dead before taking a breath, before blinking even. He wiped it away. He watched as the group started to leave. A medium sized, fair haired man greeted each and every one of the guests, thanking them for coming to the funeral. _Ian Rider_. He cradled a small bundle of blankets in one of his arms. Gently rocking it back and forth. It was a baby. _Alex Rider_.

They all continued to leave and as the last man left into his car the fair haired man walked back to the grave and knelt down. He traced the names of the deceased with his fingers, saying small words to himself, or the baby . . . or the dead. A prayer perhaps? Yassen watched silently, unzipping his black leather jacket. It really was too hot. He stayed like that for ten minutes, small tears falling out of his face. Finally, the man stood and left with the child in his arms. Yassen saw a two small hands reach up to touch the Ian's face. Ian played with the boy's small hands and gave a small smile to the child. They got into the car; the man strapped the boy into his seat and then walked to the driver's seat. They drove away.

Yassen waited another five minutes before he walked himself to the grave. Just to make sure. After all, no one could be careful enough in his line of work. He, too, knelt down in front of the two graves, specifically in front of the one with the name "John."

"You shouldn't have died," he said quietly. "SCORPIA was supposed to protect you. I know the truth though. They tried to hide it from me but I know. They betrayed you. They betrayed me too. The bridge, the plane, everything. I know what actually happened and what was supposed to have happened.

I can't say that I'm surprised though. I always had a feeling you were too nice to be SCORPIA. At least to me you were. You weren't anything like the other instructors. You actually cared. I wish you would have told me though. I wouldn't have told them anything. My loyalty is to you and you alone. After all, you were the only one that recognized my . . . _special_ talents. You were the only one that listened. That paid any real attention to me. You were the one that taught me everything about my . . ._skills_. How to use them, what to use them for and other things. I was glad to find out that you were just like me, or should I say I was just like you.

You were like the father I never had. You cared for me, sometimes a bit too much, but nevertheless you cared. I won't let anything happen to Alex. I promise. No promises on Ian though, but I suppose I could promise not to kill him." Yassen laughed a little. "I know you won't appreciate it if Ian suddenly dies. I really wish you were still alive. That I would have gotten to tell this to you in person. Alex won't ever feel the love that I felt from you. The love of his father." Yassen stood and looked at both graves.

"Or the love of his mother. . . It's a shame; John told me that you were a wonderful woman. I guess I wish I could have met you. Met the nice, warm, funny woman that he always described you as." Again he looked at John's grave. Like the man before the traced the name. _J-O-H-N R-I-D-E-R_. He took out a bullet; it was old and rusty, clearly used. He went over, closer to the tombstone and dug a small hole. He placed the bullet inside and then covered it up with the dirt. _You better remember what this bullet is from John._

Yassen was crying now. Not just small tears, but fully grown tears leaving streaks of water down his pale cheeks. His broad shoulders shook, his eyes were shut. He tried desperately to stop the tears, but his emotional system would not have it. He needed this. _No, he needed John_.

"Thank you," Yassen whispered as he wiped his eyes of those damned tears. "For everything. I promise. . . promise, to take care of Alex. No matter what happens, I promise." Yassen looked once more at the grave then walked away. He stared at the church, he had never been a religious man, and without a doubt he never would be. Though for some strange reason he thought it important to go into the church. He didn't know why, but he did. As he walked in it was quiet. There were several places in the roofs and upper forums for snipers to be hiding, but he didn't think that they would, at least not now. After all, no one, not even SCORPIA, knew he was here. He went to the front and sat in one of the pews. He stared up at the crucifix of the suffering man. The man – Jesus was it? – looked up in sorrow at his 'God.' Yassen never got religion, he never planned to. There was no point to it. Once you died, you died. That was it. End of story. Though despite that, he liked it here. It was quiet. He could think. Such as peaceful place. He closed his eyes.

"Excuse me, sir," a low male voice said from behind him, not even five minutes after he had closed his eyes.

Yassen opened his eyes and looked behind him. It was the priest from before. The priest from behind him looked at him with concern in his eyes.

"Yes?"

"You don't go to this parish much do you?" the priest had a thick cockney accent, but Yassen was used to different accents and could comprehend the man's words.

"No."

"Umm . . ." the priest seemed unsure of what to say. "I'm sorry sir, but I need to lock the church up now. We're being renovated. If you wish you could come tomorrow, a bit earlier perhaps?" The priest flushed. He didn't want to kick the man out, especially since the man was new and perhaps thinking of conversion to a Christian.

"No, it's okay. I don't need to come back." Yassen curtly stood and walked away leaving the priest baffled at his reaction. He was slightly disappointed, what if the man just wanted some justice or to reform? Oh well, it was a lost cause now. The man seemed too cold in his answer to want to try again today. Perhaps some other time.

Yassen walked over to his motorcycle. He put on his black helmet and zipped up his black leather jacket. He started his bike and sat comfortably on it. He rode of noisily, not usually a suggestion for someone in his line of work, but he liked bikes. They were freeing. He thought about the Riders. He had to protect Alex. He had to help the Riders. He had to _help_ Ian _raise_ Alex. But first there was other business to attend to.

ARxHP

Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, stood at the foot of James and Lily Potter's graves. There was a sermon going on from one of the members of the Order. Mad-Eye Moody, boy what a man to pick for a sermon. It was dark, gloomy, and the rain drizzled down very slowly. Very fitting for a funeral. Everyone had anti-rain charms on their clothing to avoid from getting wet. Their cloaks and clothing all black, women wearing black hats and dresses, men wearing black suits under their cloaks holding umbrellas above the women's heads to avoid wetting their hair. They all stared gloomily at the two tomb stones. As Mad-Eye finished his final words for Lily and James everyone bowed their heads. _Four great wizards . . .gone._

One by one the wizards and witches began to file out as the storm grew more violent. Two men, both looking very tired by the most recent events stood and shook the hands as well as thanked the people who had come. One had long black messy hair, somewhat resembling a dog, Sirius Black was his name. The other, very thin, much more weary than Sirius. Remus J. Lupin. He held a small bundle of blankets in his hand. Soft coos came from the blankets. Harry James Potter. The Boy Who Lived.

"Sirius, Remus," Dumbledore said, nodding at each man.

"Sir," they replied, nodding back.

"Would it be alright if I saw him?" Lupin hesitantly looked at the baby, and then remembered who it was that was asking exactly. He gave the boy over.

Dumbledore stared at the child. His bright, emerald eyes would open and close rather sleepily. Dumbledore touched the young boy's fingers. The boy woke up a little more and saw the friendly blue eyes of the old man holding him. Harry gave a toothless smile and started to play with the long white beard. Dumbledore smiled at the young boy. So curious, innocent and young. He gave Harry back to Lupin.

"Thank you," Dumbledore said.

"No problem, sir," he said. Sirius and Lupin turned and left. Dumbledore stayed behind, and continued to stare at the two tombstones.

"First John and Helen, now the both of you too?" he asked the tombstones. "You're all making my job harder you know?" He thought about Alex. Little Alex Rider. A baby, just like Harry, who had just lost both his parents in a 'tragic' plane 'accident.' Though, Alex, unlike Harry, had a loving caring uncle to take care of him. Not to mention a _wizard_ uncle. Harry on the other hand had muggle relatives. Both despising of magic, but it was the best way to protect him after all. Voldemort was not gone . . . no matter what people said.

Dumbledore took out a photo. It was of two couples. Both very happy, both very young, both still in their school years at Hogwarts belonging to the same house of Gryffindor. They were all rather happy, innocent, and making funny faces at the camera. They were laughing, and pushing each other of the bench. He smiled at the memory. They were all talented and intelligent at school, John, Lily, Helen slightly more intelligent than James, but James had his own little perks to make up for that. They were the closest of friends and were always together. He placed the photo in the ground, just beneath the tombstone. He cast a spell on it, making sure that only a few, select people would be able to see it.

He turned to leave. It was time to send Harry to _that _home. That sad little home, with magic hating muggles. Hopefully, Harry would be able to hang on and not give up. To always have hope.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey all, I updated. I don't usually write such long chapters (well this is long for me), so try not to get your hopes up with crazy long chapters. Thanks to all my reviewers and alerts. I didn't think that this story would be recieved so wel by the AR adn HP community. I forgot to mention in my first chapter that I'm mentioning mostly on Yassen Gregorovich, but not completely on him. I really like Yassen, he's cool.**

**Also apart from that I am unsure of when my next update will be because I have exams. I do wish to update soon. Hope you guys aren't disappointed with this chapter.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ALEX RIDER THEY BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING AND ANTHONY HOROWITZ RESPECTIVELY.**

Chapter 2

It had been two weeks since the funeral. Yassen stared at a large, looming grey building. It was the main building where all personnel files, mission files and target files were held. It was a heavily guarded building, with lots of highly trained SCORPIA men and women trained specifically to deny intruders entrance. Aside from that cameras overlooked every room, every corner, every hall, every vent, everything. Or so they thought. Only few people were allowed in and let's just say, despite Yassen Gregorovich's high ranking in the SCORPIA caste system, he was not one of them. This infiltration had to be carefully planned and executed or Yassen, himself, would be executed. Death was not something that Yassen was planning anytime in the near future . . . or far future for that matter.

Despite Yassen's inability to enter himself he had his connections. If not there were other _things_ and _ways_ of entering the building. He had first thought of using his _abilities_ to infiltrate the building. But why let SCORPIA know of the existence of such powers? He had decided to use one of his close and loyal connections.

Yassen waited in the forest by the building, for his contact. Their agreed meeting time was 01:00. An early meeting time but necessary.

"Gregorovich, are you there?" a man asked, as he walked towards where Yassen was waiting.

"Makarov," Yassen greeted, as he stepped out of the shadows. "Good to see you my friend."

"Indeed," the two men shook hands. Makarov's features could not be seen in the dark, but his silhouette was enough for Yassen. After all, no one else had the same build, and size. Apart from that no one else could copy Makarov's walking style. Left, right, left limp, right, left, right, left limp, right. It was the same pattern no matter what Makarov was doing. Even when running.

"Shall we?" Makarov asked.

"We shall," Yassen said. "And only French from here on out. No need for anyone to know that Russian is our main language if we are recorded."

The two men walked towards the large building, Makarov waved a metallic, silver bracelet in front of a scanner. The door slid open letting both men in. Without a doubt the cameras would be recording this, but it wouldn't matter. Dmitri Makarov was one of SCORPIA's highest ranking members. He was the one who chose targets and the one who chose who would go after certain targets. Because of this he was always inviting people into the main building and its rooms. This would just seem normal. Makarov was just giving Yassen another assignment. Makarov led Yassen into his office and invited Yassen to sit down in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. Makarov, himself, sat down behind his own mahogany desk. Makarov's features could be seen more clearly now. An expensive Armani suit, black messy hair and bright green calculating eyes. He was always clean shaven. A golden Rolex watch shone on his right wrist.

Makarov reached under his desk and pushed a small red button, undetectable unless you were looking for it. Only both men knew of its existence. Makarov came back up with a whisky bottle and two shot glasses. He poured some into the glasses.

"You have half an hour my friend," he said tapping his expensive watch and then raising the small glass before taking a swig out of it.

"More than enough time," Yassen said standing and walking out. The red button had set all the cameras in the building to loop. The one in Makarov's room would record a conversation between Yassen and Makarov that really wasn't happening. Oh technology. A blessing and a curse.

Yassen was careful as he roamed the white hallways to his destination. Cameras were one thing, but highly trained SCORPIA guards were another. He wasn't fearful of the guards, heavens no. They couldn't harm him even if they wanted to. But he didn't want to have to kill anyone and raise suspicion, or leave a rather random dead body hidden somewhere or disposed of. It was just more work than there was needed to be done. He needn't cause more work for himself or Makarov. Everything was complicated as it was.

Yassen made it to the central room undisturbed and unhalted. Easy. It was dark lit only by the large computer in the center as well as the several different coloured buttons. He walked over to the central computer and looked up his file. It took several minutes for the file to show up, but finally, there it was. His picture and information not shown because it was password protected but Makarov had told him the password long ago. He typed it in and put in the commands to delete it out of all databases SCORPIA and Non-SCORPIA agencies. Again it took several minutes because of all the information, but that was no bother. He looked to the file cabinets that he knew contained all of SCORPIA member files. He grabbed his out and stuffed it under his shirt. He would dispose of it later. The computer beeped telling him that he had successfully deleted all electronic traces of him in SCORPIA files. He closed the proram and cleaned up what he thought was 'his' mess trying to leave everything as it was before he had entered the room. He left the room and walked back to Makarov's office and sat down in the leather seat he had previously occupied.

"Success?" Makarov asked. Yassen nodded. "Have a drink then my friend!" Makarov pushed the filled shot glass over to Yasses. Yassen drank out of it and sighed satisfactorily.

"Good?" Makarov asked.

"Indeed," Yassen said. "Good whisky."

"It was my great grandfather's. He got it from one of the wars or something like that. I'd never had the attention span to pay attention to what he was saying."

"I see," Yassen said. He stood.

"Leaving already, Yassen?"

"I have other work to attend to Makarov," he said. He turned to face Makarov, a polished light brown stick in his hand pointed at Makarov.

"What are you doing Yassen?" he asked, standing, ready to attack if need be. His hand on his gun holster on his hip.

"It's best you forget our conversation and our endeavours tonight my friend. _Obliviate_," he said. Makarov stared at Yassen wide eyed grabbing his gun out of his holster, but not before he collapsed. Yassen was quick to react and catch him. He gently placed Makarov's now sleeping body on the chair. He made it seem as if the man had fallen asleep on the job. It had happened before. Everyone knew of Makarov's workaholic style. He placed the wooden stick back into his sleeve. A clever little hiding place he had thought, John had suggested it and showed it to him.

He walked out of the building, safely. He had made sure that the cameras showed him leaving and that Makarov had fallen asleep hours after his departure. What a handy little thing magic was. He made his way over to his bike, far away from the SCORPIA buildings. He couldn't risk the noise after all. He zipped up his jacket and put on his helmet. He took out his file folder and dropped it on the ground. He took out his wand and pointed it at the folder.

"_Incendio,_" he whispered. The large folder burnt in front of him and eventually the fire went out because of the lack of things to burn. It was still dark but he saw the wind blow the ashes of the file away. Yassen grinned as sat on his bike and started it. _Oh yes, indeed magic was a handy little thing_.

ARxHP

Albus Dumbledore walked into the rather ancient house of 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius and Lupin were there to greet him happily. Two weeks since the funeral, and the original plans that he had for Harry had changed. Well, forcibly changed thanks to the efforts of the two men standing in front of him now, one more than the other however.

"_Albus you know very well that we are responsible adults that can take care of children!" Sirius said._

"_Yes I do know," Dumbledore said. He took off his glasses and cleaned them slightly. "But Harry needs to be protected."_

"_From what? Boggarts? Dementors? Voldemort is dead! There's nothing he needs protection from."_

"_You don't know that Sirius." Dumbledore sighed and leaned back against his seat in his office at Hogwarts. Fawkes was eating the bits of food he had left from earlier._

"_What do you think Remus?" Sirius asked turning to his friend._

"_I'd like to help raise Harry bu—"_

"_See? He wants to help too!" Sirius said._

"_He wasn't finished yet Sirius," Dumbledore said._

"_Yeah, I wasn't finished. I was just thinking that it would be nice to help raise Harry, but wouldn't he need protection from death eaters. They would want to be in power themselves, and how better to get into power by killing the boy who killed their leader."_

"_Well we could easily take care of them. Those death eaters are nothing," Sirius said. His temper clearly rising._

_Dumbledore stared at the two men in front of him. One was clearly not going to give up the fight no matter what facts were presented to him. The other was not willing to give up unless faced with the correct facts. He sighed again, "Fine, you can raise Harry."_

"_Yes!" Sirius exclaimed. He was grinning wildly now. "You won't regret this sir!" He left excitedly and ran to the room where Harry currently slumbering._

"_What do you really think Remus?" Dumbledore asked. The man had not left yet. He looked tired and deep in thought. Thinking about what, Albus did not know but had a hunch._

"_It's great," he said. "Thank you Albus." He turned and left following Sirius. How would Harry react when he found out about his Uncle's state?_

"Where's Harry boys?" Dumbledore asked as they walked to the dining room.

"Upstairs, sleeping. Molly and Arthur Weasley offered to help us with him since we really have no idea how to raise a kid and the fact that they've raised ten," Sirius said sitting at the table. The other's sat with him.

"I'm pretty sure it's only been five and they've just had another one this year making it six, Sirius," Lupid said laughing slightly.

"Nevertheless it's a large amount of kids and you know it Remus," Sirius said crossing his arms.

"Agreed," Lupin said still grinning. "But it'll still be good for Harry to grow up around such a caring family."

"Yeah," Sirius said. "So now, professor, what do we owe this pleasure of you visiting us?"

"I just wanted to see how you two were fairing with young Harry," he said. "And it seems you two are doing quite well."

"Yes we are. Now aren't you glad we convinced you to let him stay with us?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, I'm glad he's going to have people who care about him surrounding him, but I still worry about the magical protection., Sirius you know that it is safer for Harry to be with blood relatives correct?"

"Yes, sir, but why would Harry need protection. Voldemort is gone. Dead," Sirius said.

"Of course, perhaps, yes," Dumbledore said. "But could we just make a compromise, Sirius?"

Sirius looked at him confused. "Compromise? We've had this conversation already Albus."

"I know, but Remus was right that evening. There are men chasing after Harry, looking for him. Death Eaters. They are trying to resurrect Voldemort," Both men looked at him. _Resurrect? Impossible. The man . . . or monster . . . was dead._

"What do you propose we do Albus?" Remus asked.

"We let Harry stay with his blood relatives for five years and after that you can claim him," Dumbledore said. "The magic is stronger with blood relatives as I have explained to the two of you."

"Yeah. . .it is." Sirius said. _Five years without his Godson? Could he do it? What was this muggle family even like? Were they open minded?_ He sighed. It _would_ be safer.

"Could we visit every once in a while?" Sirius asked. Dumbledore's eyes brightened.

"Of course. I have already consulted the matter with the family, and they say that it is fine as long as you do not use magic in their home or with Harry until you can raise him," Dumbledore said.

"No magic? Why not?" Lupin asked.

"Let's just say that this family is not exactly as welcoming as most other muggle/wizard families," Dumbledore said.

_Well there goes the open minded theory. Hopefully they're nice and caring people._

"What do you say?" Dumbledore asked. Both men looked at each other, then at Dumbledore. They knew that they had to give Harry up if they wanted him safe. They couldn't be selfish, especially if it could get Harry killed. They nodded their heads.

"Good, I'll take Harry tomorrow. I'm sorry boys, but this is for the best. And not to worry, you'll be able to visit him as well as be able to take care of him yourselves in five years."

True to Dumbledore's word he returned the next morning with Hagrid taking Harry. Hagrid rode away on his bike taking Harry and Dumbledore to the little house in Little Whinging on 44 Privet Drive. They dropped the young baby off, with hopes and wishes that his new family would take could care of him.

ARxHP

Ian Rider sat down at his kitchen table. It had been a long day and this tea was just the thing he needed to relax himself. He grabbed the brown mug, took a sip and sighed. Oh how nice warm tea was to the throat . . . and everything else that was going on in his life. Alex had kept him busy most of the day. He'd never known how troublesome a little baby could be. He needed to be changed, hugged, held, talked to, sung to (and to be honest he was a rather talented singer), changed some more, comforted, changed again, put to sleep, fed, changed. . . it was a lot. But in the end it was nice to see the little boy slumbering peacefully.

He was ready to crash out himself, but knew that sometime in the middle of the night Alex would wake up crying and need to be comforted. He could handle time bombs, murderous assassins, sadistic masterminds, but yet he couldn't handle a baby boy. He looked at the wall clock. 2:00 a.m. No need to sleep now, Alex would wake up soon and cry. Maybe he needed to hire a stay in nanny. A responsible woman, who knew what she was doing but also cute. He chuckled. Yes cute would be nice. Blonde, or maybe red headed, with a nice slim figure. He laid his head on his arms which were on the table now. Just a little snooze while he came up with his dream girl . . . dream caretaker. That wouldn't be too bad right?

_KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK_. Ian groaned. Who could be knocking at 2:05 a.m.? Not MI6 they knew he had to take care of Alex. Annoyed, he stood up and walked to the window. He saw a man waiting for him to answer the door. The man was wearing all black, black jacket, black jeans and from what he could see a black turtle neck. He had a black cap over his hair so the color was unrecognizable. The man had his back to Ian and checked his watch. The build was familiar, who could this man be? Ian looked to the previously empty street. The streetlights were still on, after all it was dark. But underneath one of those lights he saw a nice looking motorcycle parked. An expensive looking one at that.

The man knocked again and Ian went to answer the door, his right hand on his gun holster at his hip. The man wasn't forcing his way in but you can never be to safe right?

Ian opened the door and stared in shock.

"Hey Ian."


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, I updated again. Yay. This chapter was rather long, but that's mainly because I wanted to get all of the introductions out of the way. I want to thank the people who review my story and I would like to have some constructive critisism to tell me how I can improve. I would like to thank Biblioholic for pointing out some of my mistakes. I will, hopefully, fix them soon and repost those chapters.**

**Apologies in advance for any spelling and grammatical mistakes. I read this over quickly because I am have a lot of commitments to sports teams and clubs. Also this isn't beta'ed. I would also like to apologize if this chapter seemed really boring and wordy. Again, I just wanted to get all of the introductions out of the way. Another thing, I am not from England nor have I ever been to England (or Europe for that matter. . . yet) so I apologize if I make mistakes regarding the culture over there (but it really shouldn't be that different from here in Canada. . . should it?).**

**I'm not sure when the next update will be but I hope this satisfies you for now. Again, sorry if it doesn't live up to expectations.  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ALEX RIDER THEY BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING AND ANTHONY HOROWITZ RESPECTIVELY.**

Chapter 3

Ian Rider stared wide eyed at the weary looking man standing in front of him. His gun was out of his holster and pointed at the weary man's chest. "Remus? Remus Lupin?" Ian asked rather wearily himself, putting the gun back in its holster. He couldn't believe it. He hadn't seen Remus since the Hogwarts Student Reunion 5 years ago. They hadn't exchanged addresses or anything, so it was rather surprising to see the man before him now.

"Hey," Remus said again. It was rather awkward. The two had been close friends at Hogwarts and had promised to keep in touch afterwards. Though after being hired by MI6, Ian hadn't had much time to talk to anyone from Hogwarts, except, of course, John.

"Umm . . . Come in, come in," he said urging Remus through the door. He led Remus to the kitchen and sat down in one of the stools in front of his bar. "You want anything? Tea, coffee, beer, whisky . . . water?"

Lupin grinned. "Some coffee sounds good right about now."

"Coffee it is then," Ian said, standing. He walked over to the brewer and started to make the drinks, but then changed his mind. He pulled out a wand from his sleeve and let the magic do the work. "I forgot I could do that," he said grinning at his friend as he, again, took his seat. He hid the wand back in his sleeve. John taught him that.

"You've been living among muggles far too long Ian," he said smiling back. "You've been working for the government, Dumbledore tells me."

Ian stared at Lupin wearily. Did Dumbledore really know what he was doing? "In a way, sure, that's what I'm doing. I work as a bank manager. An overseas bank manager so I'm away a lot." They sat in silence a little longer and waited for the coffee to finish. Both were lost in their own thoughts. Ian broke the silence as the coffee arrived in front of them.

"That's a nice motorcycle you got out there. Pretty expensive. A BMW HP2 Sport. Where'd you get it?"

"Sirius bought it off of a muggle and gave it to me for my birthday. I didn't even know what it was called. He said all the muggles were using them. What a liar," Lupin grinned and took a sip of his coffee. It was warming to his throat. "Good stuff you made Ian."

"I have one in the garage. I don't use it much except for joyrides," Ian said. _And when I'm making a quick getaway._ Ian thought. They sat in silence a little while before Ian asked the question that had been bothering him for some while. "How did you find out where I lived?"

Lupin took a sip before answering. "John told James, who told Sirius, who told me," he replied.

Ian gave a sigh of relief. At least he knew how Lupin knew and who told him. If it had been someone else then . . . then he would have to move because of uncertain circumstances where his enemies would be able to find him. "How are Lily and James by the way? Last I heard of them was when Lily was just pregnant with a baby. Should be borne by now though, is it a he or a she?" He had no idea what was happening in the wizard world. The only thing he knew was that there was some evil wizard named Voldemort trying to take over and do an all wizard rule. Kill all mudbloods and muggles apparently.

Lupin looked down at his coffee. He looked more tired even though the coffee should have woken him up a little bit. It wasn't decaf he mixed after all. "They died a while back . . ." he said quietly.

Ian coughed out what he drank of his coffee. "Died? How? Who? When? Why?" He was lost for words at what he had just heard. First John and Helen, now James and Lily? What was happening? "Was it this Voldemort I've been hearing about?" Ian noticed a small flinch from his friend as the man heard the name.

Lupin nodded. "Yes. He tried to kill their son, Harry, because of a prophesy made about the boy. They died protecting him."

"And Harry," Ian started rather hesitantly, "is safe? Living with you and Sirius I assume?"

"He's safe yes," Lupin took another sip, "but he is living with his relatives from Lily's side. A muggle family that dislikes magic, its existence and its users quite a fair bit."

"Lupin," Ian said. "You must tell me about the events in the wizarding world. What has happened and what the plans are for the future. I do not like being in the dark and my only source of information was John and Helen."

"Was?" Lupid asked. "What do you mean was? I saw John a couple months ago with Helen. She was rather big with that baby of hers occupying her stomach. Did they . . . pass away as well?"

"Yes. Murdered on an airplane by," Ian hesitated. "A bomb." Well, it was a bomb. He wasn't _lying_. Just . . . leaving out some rather important truths on how the bomb had gotten on and why it had been placed there.

"I am sorry," Lupin said. "And their son, he is safe?"

"Yes, he's sleeping upstairs right now actually. Little baby boy by the name of Alex. Alex John Rider. He has John's bright blond hair, but Helen's chocolate brown eyes. He's rather cute," Ian sighed. "But so much work. I mean, you have no idea how much babies need to be looked after. Crying, changing, eating, changing, sleeping, changing, playing, changing . . . etcetera. I can stand long gruesome hours at . . . the bank, but I can't stand to take care of one little baby boy!" Ian sighed in frustration. "But I guess seeing him sleep at night is a nice little reward for all of my hard work."

Lupin gave a small laugh. "You should have seen me with Sirius when Harry was with us for the first couple of weeks. Couldn't do a damn thing, even with magic. Eventually, Arthur and Molly Weasley came to help us out. After all, they have had 6 children."

"Oh right. I forgot I could use magic! Would have helped with those diapers," Ian said making a face. "And six? Last I heard from John they were at 5 . . . or was it 4?"

"No it was five. Twins," Lupin said laughing a little more.

"Too much work if you ask me. . ." Ian mumbled taking another sip. They had both finished their coffees. "Want more?" Ian asked. Lupin nodded and Ian waved his wand to the table getting the pitcher to pour coffee into both men's cups. He magically warmed them and they both began to drink again.

"Now onto business," Ian said. "You rather side tracked me there when you were supposed to be telling me what was, is and will be happening in the wizard world. You were always talented at side tracking people, Remus." Ian took a sip.

"It's a rather long story . . ." Lupin sighed. "And it's very late."

"No," Ian said, pointing to the clock, "it's 5:00 a.m. It's actually very early. You have all day to tell me the story, and help me out with Alex if he wakes up somewhere between the story."

Lupin sighed in defeat. "Very well. So you very well know the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named part and how—"

"Rather wordy isn't it? Just call him by his name," Ian said.

"Fine. _Voldemort_," Lupin shuddered. Ian stared somewhat curiously at his friend, how strange. "Found out where James, Lily and Harry were living—"

"What, no protection? No charms, no guards, no nothing?" Ian asked, shocked.

"Well if you'd let me continue . . ." Lupin said. Ian blushed, clearly embarrassed. He wasn't going to be interrupting anytime soon. Hopefully. "Anyway, to answer your question, they had the Fidelius Charm cast over their home – and before you say anything, it was neither me nor Sirius that was used as the secret keeper, it was Peter Pettigew. You remember him right? The rat like boy who hung out with us in school?" Ian nodded. "Well, anyway, that little rat, gave away Lily and James to V-Voldemort in exchange for his own life. Voldemor killed Lily and James and tried to kill Harry, but the spell backfired and now Voldemort is dead. Well at least that's what we all think, but Dumbledore doesn't seem so sure about it.

"Well, now Harry is staying with his wizard hating blood relatives and me and Sirius get full guardianship of Harry once he turns five."

"Oh . . . that _was_ a long story," Ian said, his voice laced with sarcasm. The entire story had taken ten minutes. "But you're missing out on _why_, this Voldemort guy was actually after the Potters."

"Right. There was some prophecy about Harry being the one to end Voldemort's reign and he heard of it and tried to kill Harry. Harry is now known as the Boy Who Lived. The end," Lupin said grinning at his friend who he knew was now frustrated with the abridged version of current events. But after all, what goes around comes around. Ian was hiding something from Remus and Remus didn't like being in the dark either.

"Very well then," Ian said. He yawned. "Good to know things are at peace then, hmm?" They both heard a cry from upstairs. Alex had woken up. "Want to come see the little angel slash devil?" Ian asked standing. Lupin nodded and followed Ian up the stairs. He watched as Ian walked over to the cradle and lifted the small bundle of blankets into his arms and rocked back and forth. Ian looked like he needed to go pee. Bad.

"Hey Alex, it's okay, don't cry, it's your Uncle Ian," Ian said yawning. The small baby eventually calmed down and again fell asleep. It was only 5:30. "You can come look if you want. He isn't going to bite, no teeth yet. But throwing up, I'm not so sure of."

Remus grinned then hesitantly walked over to the sleeping baby. His small eyes were closed and his small hands were clutching the blankets around him. "Cute little angel isn't he?" Ian asked. Lupin nodded. The boy looked so much like John . . . but a baby.

"Well I'd better get going," Lupin said, walking out of the room. "Sirius is expecting me back later."

"Well alright. But if you need anything, you, apparently, know where I live. Give me an address or something where I can contact you," Ian said handing him paper and a pen. Remus wrote down the address.

"That's Sirius' place. Just give a holler before coming though," Lupin said as he started his bike. "I'll see you around. It was nice being able to talk to you again."

"Same here. We'll see each other soon. Hopefully." Ian watched as Lupin rode away and then lifted off to the sky. Of course. He wouldn't stand for the ground. Not as a natural Quidditch player he wouldn't. Ian walked back into his house and flicked his wand to start washing the mugs he and Lupin had drunk out of. He walked back upstairs and peaked into Alex's room. Alex was still sound asleep. Good. Maybe he could get some z's of his own, even if it was just for a little while. Ian walked to his room and collapsed on the bed. No, he wasn't going to change. He was too tired for that. He would just lie here for a minute. Maybe an hour, maybe finally get some sleep. Even if it was just a little nap.

ARxHP

Yassen rode towards where he knew Ian Rider lived in Chelsea. He was riding over the speed limit, but no one would really mind it at 6:00 a.m. would they? The subdivision was empty anyway; no police cars would be here to catch him. His getaway from SCORPIA had been smooth and clean, no big obstacles to get through, not big guards to have to kill and dispose of, no big chase scene that would have normally happened. Just nice and smooth . . . and boring as hell. Yassen had been riding for the past couple of hours, stopping only for two bathroom breaks and to refill on gas. Of course, he did use magic to speed up his travelling process a little bit, but it wasn't by too much. John had told him to avoid using too much magic, because becoming dependent on one thing could mean life or death for an assassin.

He finally arrived at the address John had given him before his death. It was still dark outside as he walked to the front door, but the sun was peeking out from behind the houses. He knocked at the door.

ARxHP

Ian groaned. Who could it be now? Sirius? Dumbeldore? MI6? He put the pillow over his head. Maybe if he ignored them they would go away. _KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!_ "DAMN IT!" Ian hissed as he stood and walked over to his window. He could see his unwanted guest standing in all black, a leather black jacket zipped up with black jeans. The man was wearing shades even though it was still dark out. His blond hair and pale skin contrasted all the black he was wearing. Who the hell was this man? Ian could see a motorcycle under the still open streetlight parked when Remus had had his earlier. It was black, like Remus', but a different model.

Ian got up and went downstairs, again his hand on his gun holster. Whoever this man was Ian didn't know him and therefore Ian didn't trust him. He opened the door to see a fair haired man staring back at him, his arms crossed across his chest, standing straight like a soldier. His face was now more visible and Ian could see pale blue eyes looking back at him, studying him in a way. There was a thin scar across his neck, partially hidden by the high collars of his jacket.

"Ian Rider?" the man asked a slight Russian accent noticeable.

"Yes, who are you?" Ian asked, hand still on the handle of his gun, but not quite yet revealed.

"Now, before I tell you, please remove your hand from your gun handle," the man said, raising both hands, palms faced outwards, to show that he was currently not holding any weapons that could cause harm. The usual sign of surrender. Ian, hesitantly, removed his hand from his gun and showed the man his empty hands in a similar manner. "My name is Yassen Gregorovich." Ian gaped. The SCORPIA assassin? What was this man doing here? Had he come to kill Ian and Alex because of John's double agent status? Quickly, Ian pulled slipped his wand into his hand and pointed it to Yassen's chest.

"Wand hidden in sleeve? John taught me that too," Yassen said grinning.

"John what? What are you talking about?" Ian asked.

"I was John's student at SCORPIA," Yassen said. "Here." Yassen pulled out his wand from his sleeve and gave it to Ian. "A sign that I mean no harm to you or your household." Ian took it and placed it in his back pocket. He ushered Yassen in with his wand still pointed at the man's chest. He closed the door behind Yassen, careful to be always facing the wanted assassin.

"Okay, so what do you want and how did you find out where I lived?" Ian asked.

"John told me where you lived in case of an emergency," Yassen replied. _Man, was John telling everyone where he lived these days? Who else knew?_

"Okay, that answer's my second question, but what about what do you want?" Ian asked again.

"I want to help you raise Alex," Yassen replied. Ian stared at the man in shock. Yassen wanted to help raise Alex?

"Why? Wouldn't you rather go out killing people for money?" Ian asked.

Yassen sighed. "John saved my life. Taught me everything I know about everything I needed to know. He taught me about my talents and taught me how to properly utilize them. I do not know how your Wizarding Government missed one of their own, but everyone makes mistakes sometimes I guess. John raised me and cared for me like a son, Ian. I want to be able to repay him in any way possible and the only way I can think of repaying him is to help raise his son."

Ian stared at the man. "I would like to accept that offer, but you're a wanted criminal in 14 countries, including here in England. I should be turning you over to the authorities right now."

"I have cut all ties with SCORPIA. I am a free man. I cleared my own name from that list of wanted criminals. I am aware that most of the underground will still know of my actions, but who is to say that a little extra money from a couple jobs here and there will hurt? I can work for MI6 if it makes you more comfortable. I hear that they are always looking for good talent. The fact that I was taught by John, himself, should suffice MI6's thirst for skill. I know that the murders I committed before will not be easily forgotten by you or anyone in our line of work. But you must understand that I did what I did to survive, and that John was with me on every assassination mission I was given.

"Aside from that I can see that you will most likely be in need of my help. You have dark bags under your eyes clearly you have not been sleeping enough." Yassen gave a small laugh. "Little Alex has been keeping you up I assume? Babies are tough to deal with." Ian lowered his wand. The man meant no harm, but he was still weary. He led Yassen to the kitchen.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Ian asked, yawning.

"Some coffee would be nice." Ian nodded and flicked his wand to where the ingredients and items needed for the drink were. He let the magic do its work. He took Yassen's wand out of his back pocket and placed it on the table, as far away from the assassin as possible. "Are you dependant on magic, Ian?" Yassen asked.

"No. Until rather recently, I hadn't used magic. Even during missions. A friend of mine dropped by and helped me to remember that I was, indeed, a wizard. Do you use magic during your assassinations or in everyday life?" Ian found it hard to imagine the man with a life other than killing.

"No. John taught me that become to dependant or accustomed to one thing is not good for our work. To obvious and predictable. I do not use magic during missions. I preferred to keep my talents hidden from SCORPIA and it came to good use because now they cannot find me if I wish for them not to."

"John taught you a lot didn't he?" Ian asked as the coffee arrived.

"Yes, he was a good teacher and great friend," Yassen replied as he sipped at his coffee. "So what do you say to my offer?" Ian looked at the man for minute. The man was willing to switch sides to help him raise Alex, to help Alex grow into as good a man as he could be. Besides, Yassen was a no-nonsense type of guy. At least, as far as he knew. John taught Yassen meaning there must be good in the wanted assassin. John trusted Yassen and Yassen trusted John. Whoever John trusted so did Ian.

"Okay, but I'm still hiring a stay in nanny. Unless you like cooking, laundry, cleaning the house—"

"No hire the nanny," Yassen said cutting Ian off with a glare. Ian grinned. He gave Yassen back his wand and both replaced their wands into their sleeves.

"You'll be moving in with me then I assume?" Ian asked.

"If you don't mind that is," Yassen said. "I could easily buy a place down the street."

"No it's fine. You can stay in one of the extra rooms. Take your pick. It would be nice to have someone else around to help in the house while I look for a nanny. Do you have your things packed? We can send a truck to wherever you're keeping them and have them here by tomorrow."

"No I have it all with me, remember, magic?" Yassen asked, grinning. He pulled a small brown cube out of his jacket pocket. Ian grinned back and led him to the two extra rooms. Yassen chose the left one, closer to Alex's room. The room was bare and empty. No bed, no closet, nothing really. The walls were a bland color of white and Yassen could see some of the wallpaper tearing off. He placed the small brown cube on the floor and tapped it with his wand. It grew larger and several boxes came out of the large one. Yassen's personal belongings floated out of the boxes and landed in the room. Yassen was moving his wand around placing each object somewhere in the room where he felt it fit. Desk here, bed there, closet there. In ten minutes he had finished rearranging the room and it looked more comfortable than the empty room it had been just ten minutes previous.

"Right then," Ian said. "I'll leave you to get settled." Ian left the room and walked to his own. He collapsed onto his bed, again not bothering to change. He heard Alex crying in his room and got up to care for the little boy. As he stepped out he saw Yassen already outside.

"I'll take care of him. Get some rest. You look like you need it," Yassen said entering Alex's room. Ian thanked him and walked back into his own room. He fell on his bed and surrendered himself to sleep before anything else bothered him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright, I just wanted to clear up some things that may have, or will, confuse people. This story is written in the current timeline. So now time not then time, and yeah, I know that both Alex Rider and Harry Potter is a 'then' story, but I'ld like to make it a 'now' story.**

**Another thing is that yes, Yassen is very OOC in this story. I'm trying to keep him in character, but it's somewhat hard for me. I'm not certain why, but yeah, it's rather difficult. I apologize if some of you don't like the OOC Yassen, but I'm trying very hard to keep him in character. I don't know who else is OCC in this story, but I apologize if you don't like it.**

**One more thing, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again, I'm going to be gone for a while but I have most of Chapter 5 written and expect to finish it by this weekend.**

**Again, another wordy chapter, but I really want to get all of these introductions out of the way. I hope that it still lives up to expectations, sorry if it doesn't.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ALEX RIDER THEY BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING AND ANTHONY HOROWITZ RESPECTIVELY.**

Chapter 4

Alan Blunt stared at the two huge piles of paperwork lying on his desk. It would take at least two days to complete. The first pile was of recently recruited or diseased agents which he had to sign off, the second one was of mission files and of targets that would be given to available agents. He sighed and rubbed his temples. This would be a very long day. He took the one off of the top of the first pile and laid it on his desk. _John Rider_. Blunt stared at the paper and the picture of the agent on the file. What a shame to lose such a talented agent. John Rider was the most talented agent he had. Rumours were going around that when Blunt retired – which wouldn't be any time soon – John would be taking over instead of his second in command Tulip Jones. There was no doubt he had thought of it himself, after all, John was capable of making the toughest decisions in the toughest time frames and situations. He had the luck of the devil, but that luck just recently ran out. It was shame. John was the most talented agent he had. There was almost something _magical_ about the man. He was able to do anything, anywhere, anytime with anyone. It was a miracle on how he survived everything and even more on how he successfully completed so much. It would be hard to replace him or find someone to do all the missions he had planned for him.

"Mr. Blunt?" his secretary asked paging in.

"Yes?"

"There are two men here to see you," she said.

"Get Mrs. Jones to deal with it, I am very busy Amanda," he replied frustrated. "I don't want to be bothered at all today; I have a lot of work to do."

"Of course, sir," she said.

ARxHP

Ian Rider and Yassen Gregorovich stood in front of Amanda Szczesny's desk waiting for her to finish paging Alan Blunt. She was new, he hadn't seen here before today. Her name shone on her shiny new name tag. They were in the Royal and General bank and Yassen was looking for a job. They heard her speak with Alan for a very brief period then she hung up.

"Mr. Blunt is very busy at the moment Mr. Rider and . . . Mr. Gregorovich," she glanced nervously at the assassin. Everyone who worked in the MI6 section of the building knew who Yassen Gregorovich was and what he was capable of. "But Mr. Blunt says I can contact Mrs. Jones if you still wish to speak to someone about Mr. Gregorovich." Ian sighed. The girl was too polite. It got really annoying.

"Fine, fine, go contact Mrs. Jones and tell her it's Ian Rider, which, might I add, you forgot to mention to Blunt earlier, but there is no point in calling him now, he's probably frustrated with you or something." Ian saw her defeated look after talking to Blunt. Clearly he had said something to bring her _highly_ cheered mood down to a 'mere' cheery mood. Nevertheless, she was still very annoying. She dialled the number to contact Mrs. Jones and talked to her as well, but this time the conversation was longer. At the end of it Amanda brightened up and hung up cheerfully. Great. She was back to the overly cheery person that they had had the displeasure of meeting when they entered the Royal and General.

"Mrs. Jones will be glad to accommodate you two. Please just sit at the waiting area for a couple of minutes and she will be down to come escort you to her office." Amanda gestured to the leather seats not far away from her desk. The two men walked over and sat down. Ian saw Amanda staring at Yassen wearily. She was still worried about him randomly standing up and shooting the people around him. Ian smiled at what had happened before.

She nearly collapsed when Ian walked in with the man and pressed the panic button under her desk. Ian was quick to stop her and said Yassen was currently neutral and intended no harm to anyone in the building . . . yet. But he left that last part out, no need to worry the girl more than needed. Yassen, of course, was unarmed, except for the wand up his sleeve. No guns, no daggers, not even a knife in his boot. He was completely neutral . . . again for now. They sat for ten minutes watching men and women enter. Either as real bankers working for the bank part, as customers waiting for financial help, or as agents working for MI6.

"This is a very good cover, and must be a very good business," Yassen whispered to Ian.

"You have no idea," Ian said. "You actually have to know a little about banking to work in this branch of MI6. That way when some civilian asks you a question you know what they ask and how to answer and who to tell them to meet about their problems. You know anything about banking?"

"Yes, well, more finance and accounting I guess. Money was important to my father and he taught me a lot about it. How to make it, how to save it, and how to utilize it correctly."

"Good enough," Ian said. "Just need to get familiarized with the building and you're good."

Mrs. Jones walked in after five more minutes, the click clack of her heels hitting the marble floor in a quick rhythmical pattern. She was sucking on a peppermint furiously, clearly something was bothering her. Oh, right. Maybe the fact that a world-wide wanted criminal was in her building and she had no idea why, and to add to that it was one of her best agents currently accompanying the man, would have bothered her a little bit.

"Ian," she said, and then glanced wearily at the assassin. "Yassen. If you would both please follow me to my office." The two men stood and followed Mrs. Jones to an elevator. She pressed the button to the second highest floor and closed the doors. The ride was quiet and rather awkward. At least, it was for Mrs. Jones. Ian and Yassen stood behind her grinning at each other. It was clear that she was very uncomfortable with an assassin in the elevator, more uncomfortable perhaps was the fact that he was standing behind her instead of in front of her. Ian didn't understand why she didn't stand behind them in the first place. Maybe it was because she thought he'd protect her if Yassen were to try anything funny, which he wouldn't.

They arrived at the floor soon enough and Mrs. Jones quickly got out of the elevator. She quickly led the two men to her office. She moved behind her desk and sat down and gestured at the two vacant seats in front of her desk. They sat.

"So, Ian," Mrs. Jones said unwrapping another peppermint from a bowl on her desk. "Why bring a dangerous assassin to MI6 headquarters in daylight?"

"I want a job," Yassen said straight to the point much like Jones had started. He leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed at his chest.

"You have a job do you not?" Jones asked. "With SCORPIA as one of their top assassins. John told us a lot about you and how he trained you to be the best, which, in our opinion, was a rather stupid thing to do, because then we'd have a very strong opponent."

"But I don't belong to SCOPRIA anymore. I have cut my ties with them permanently," Yassen said. His eyes turned cold. "After I found out who actually killed John I had no intentions of staying with the organization that killed my mentor."

Jones sighed. Yassen would be a good asset but . . . "How do we know this isn't some sort of scheme? That you've tricked, bribed or threatened Agent Rider to bring you here so that you can infiltrate and gain important information on MI6."

"He's not lying," Ian said through gritted teeth. "Not after what he said about John. If John trusted Yassen with his life then I think we can trust Yassen as well."

"And Ian, how do you know that this man has not lied to you about whatever he has told you?" Jones asked more persistent with her case.

"Because I do!" Ian said standing. His hands slammed on her desk rattling the bowl of peppermints and causing papers that were previously on her desk to fall on the carpeted ground. "John told me about Yassen, about how he trusted Yassen with his life and everything! Before you say anything, he knew it was classified, but he needed to tell me. He said that something big was going to happen and that I was going to be getting a visitor sometime soon."

"So John told you this all himself? Before his death?" Jones asked.

"No, clearly he told me after he died and reached me through a bloody dream," Ian said poisonous sarcasm in his voice. "Of course he told me before he died! He said that he had a feeling his bloody mission would be over soon and that he would need to go into hiding. I swear it." The last part he said cutting the syllables to make more of his point. Ian sat back down on his chair staring coldly as the second in command. He had vented out everything on her and that felt really good.

Jones leaned back into her chair and used her intercom to contact the overly cheery secretary downstairs. "Amanda would you please tell Alan that I will be entering his office in about five minutes?"

"Ma'am Mr. Blunt does not want to be bothered today. He said that he had a lot of very important work to do," the secretary replied.

"Yes but this is much more important that what he is doing. Tell him we will be there in five. No questions asked." Jones cut off the communication device before the secretary was able to answer. "Come. We'll go see Alan about your employment here Mr. Gregorovich." Both men nodded stood and followed Jones out of her office. They went back to the elevator and Jones pushed the button for the floor above them.

"Wouldn't it just be faster to take the stairs . . . and environmentally friendly? I mean elevators use electricity and walking up the stairs isn't too bad," Yassen said.

Ian laughed at the comment. Even Jones' lip quirked upwards for a small smile. "I didn't know you were environmentally friendly," Ian said. "After all the travelling you do and all that. Planes here and there, cars here and there, motorbikes here and there. And to answer your question, there is no stairs up to Blunt's floor. Just more challenging for intruders to get up to Blunt."

"Yes, but no escape route," Yassen said as they started to walk out of the elevator. There was nothing at all on this room but one large hall with several, presumably locked, wooden doors on both sides. The floors were carpeted and there were cameras above each door. There was a grander door at the end of the hall, Blunt's office without a doubt. Jones showed her identification card to the scanner and the doors opened. It revealed a large room with several drawers and computers as well as a large window overlooking London. They looked bulletproof and when Yassen had first seen the building it had looked tinted. Privacy and pleasure. She led the two men in and went to stand beside Blunt, who was signing paper, while she offered the two seats in front of the desk to the two men.

"Gregorovich," Blunt said, rather shocked to see the man in front of him and unbound, but did not show it. "Jones. Rider. What is the meaning of this? Have you turned on your country?"

"No, Alan," she said. "Mr. Gregorovich has come looking for employment."

"Isn't he already employed?" Blunt asked raising and eyebrow.

"As of John Rider's death my contract with SCORPIA has been terminated," Yassen replied. He kept eye contact with the head of MI6. He wasn't going to lose this battle, which was only a staring contest but a battle nevertheless.

"Very well then, Tulip give Mr. Gregorovich the necessary paperwork to be filled out and in two weeks or so and he can become an Agent for MI6," Alan said looking back down and continuing his paperwork.

"That's it Alan? You aren't going to ask him any questions about anything?" she asked.

"He got past you didn't he?" Blunt replied, not bothering to look up from his paperwork. "Besides. I knew that John must have had some reason for training Mr. Gregorovich the way he did. He basically went all in when he taught Gregorovich, isn't that right Yassen?" Blunt asked, looking up from his paper to make brief eye contact with the man. Yassen nodded. "John must have planned to tell you about his mission from the very beginning and recruit you to MI6. That's how I see it and that's most likely how John had planned it from the very beginning if I know him at all."

"I'm just satisfied that you, Mr. Gregorovich, are willing to change sides." Blunt finished speaking and dismissed the two men out of the room. Ian and Yassen looked at Jones and she nodded towards the door. They both stood and left the room without saying a word.

"You really think that he's on our side?" Jones asked when they had gone. "He has killed a lot of people."

"Yes but John was only teaching him what he needed to be a spy," Blunt said. He gave a small smile. Creepy looking on his usually blank face. "It seems John's been planning Yassen's future without Yassen's consent, but has succeeded. The only question I have is how John gained such a talented young man's loyalty."

Tulip Jones nodded as she, too, thought what John may have done to the young man to gain such loyalty.

ARxHP

"Did John really tell you about me coming? Or me at all?" Yassen asked as they reached their motor cycles parked just outside of the Royal and General.

"No," Ian replied. "I lied. John told me nothing . . . but I had a feeling you wouldn't lie about what you said the other night."

"I didn't," Yassen said. "But do you now wonder about my loyalty to John?"

"I do," Ian said. "But that whole, teaching you about magic and saving your life satisfies me. For now. I would like to know how my brother gained your loyalty though . . ."

"It was during a mission John took me on. I was only there to observe but a poisonous spider had crawled onto my neck. John shot the spider off and killed our target all with one bullet," Yassen said. "It was a moment that I will never forget. That was when I first realized how amazing John really was." Yassen pulled down his collar. "And this is where the bullet scratched me when he killed the spider. Why lie for me?"

Ian laughed as he started his bike. Yassen looked at him curiously. "Because John trusted you I trust you too. And that whole spider thing sounds exactly like John."

"Tell me," Yassen said. "Does MI6 have any clue about magic?"

"Not that I am aware of, no," Ian said. "They might but they haven't made it known to us if they do. Most likely they don't though. John and I have been trying hard to keep our magic hidden."

"So you do not want them to know of it. Why?" Yassen asked.

"Same reason you didn't want SCORPIA to know. In case of emergency," Ian replied mounting his bike and starting it. Yassen smiled. Indeed. In case of emergency.

ARxHP

Ian and Yassen walked through a park to get some sun for the little baby. They weren't sure if he actually needed it, but they had seen a couple with their baby in the park. Ian had read in some parenting book that it was good for a baby to get some sun every once in a while. Little Alex was now 7 months old and more aware of his surroundings and his two 'Uncles.' Ian was pushing a dark blue stroller while Yassen walked beside him reading a book in Spanish. The man said he wanted to touch up on his languages and suggested, that, when Alex was old enough, they teach him different languages as well. Ian agreed with the idea. Just in case after all.

Alex was cooing and reaching up for the fluffy looking white clouds above them. It was rather cute. They reached a bench and sat down. It was hot outside. Ian reached into the stroller and grabbed the baby out of his stroller. Alex smiled at him and reached up to play with his uncle's face. He pinched Ian's nose causing Ian to laugh and pinch Alex's nose back. A couple walked past them holding hands and giggling. And another. And another.

"What are they laughing at?" Ian whispered asked leaning over to Yassen's ear.

"I'm . . . not sure," Yassen said putting his book down. After about five minutes two men came up to them. The first had bright blond hair and had it slicked back. He had bright green eyes and smiled brightly at the two of them. The other had light brown hair with dark brown eyes. His hair was messier but he was smiling just like the first man.

"Aww, he's so cute!" the blonde said. "How'd you get your adoption to fall through?"

"Adoption? What do you mean?" Ian asked.

"Why he's not yours is he?" the brown haired man asked. Ian and Yassen shook their heads.

"He's my brother's but he's recently passed away with his wife," Ian said.

"Oh," the blonde man said. "We're sorry. We thought you adopted him." The man held his partners hand. "We've been trying to adopt one for months but it keeps on falling through because we're gay."

"Gay?" Yassen asked. "You think we're gay?"

The two men nodded. "Are you not?" the brown haired asked getting closer to his partner. Ian and Yassen shook their heads. "Oh God, sorry. We didn't—I mean the baby, and the two of you together. We thought you were. Oh, jeez, we're sorry!" the blonde said. They were both blushing deeply. "We won't bother you now." The two of them left, embarrassed deeply of their actions.

"Never mention this to anyone. Ever," Yassen said. He was fuming. Gay? With Ian? He had better tastes.

Ian laughed. "Okay, whatever you say Yassie," he said pushing into the other man. Yassen growled and stared coldly at Ian.

"Don't call me that," Yassen said. Alex laughed at the scene in front of him, not really sure what was happening, but it seemed pretty funny. He cooed at Yassen and Yassen took the baby from Ian's arms. "I. Am. Not. Gay," he said to Alex. Alex's smiled grew larger. He reached up and pinched Yassen's nose.

"He doesn't understand you. He's what, seven months?" Ian said laughing.

"I think this is enough sun for him. Let's go home," Yassen said placing Alex back into his stroller. Ian laughed again and followed the fuming Yassen out of the park and back to their Chelsea home.

ARxHP

Sirius and Lupin walked up the house they knew to be on 44 Privet Drive. They had missed their first visit to Harry two months ago because of an emergency trip to the St. Mungo's. Sirius had bought himself a motorcycle and was going too fast on it and crashed. He had to stay in the hospital for a couple weeks, even if it was a magical hospital. At least the bike was repaired though. They couldn't reschedule the visit right after, but was able to convince the Dursley's to let them visit two months after. It took a lot of convincing to get them to say yes. The family detested magic.

They knocked at the door. They looked like plane muggles. Sirius was wearing a black T-Shirt underneath a normal suit jacket. He had on blue jeans and had, hesitantly, put his hair in a ponytail to look 'cleaner.' Lupin, on the other hand, wore a white t-shirt under a black varsity jacket and faded jeans. They were, at first, very hesitant to wear the clothing as it was not made from the same material they were used to, but after a while grew accustomed to it and even started liking them. They liked them enough to wear them out in public wizard places such as Diagon Alley. Several wizards would look at them strangely, but the muggle-borns wouldn't mind as much. They were used to seeing such people, they were even complimented by the muggle-borns and some pure-blood wizards. After a week or two they saw more wizards wearing muggle clothing. They had started a trend.

After about ten minutes of waiting at the door Sirius tried again. He knocked and this time a large fat man without a neck answered the door. He looked rather grumpy and was red in the face. His eyes were beady and stared hatefully at the two wizards at the door. Sirius and Lupin smiled at the man brightly causing the man's bad mood to sour even more.

"Oh, you're here," he said. "Petunia! They're here!" A thin woman came into view from behind the larger man. She was tall and thin and seemed very strict. She was holding a baby in her arms. It was larger than what they had thought Harry would be but maybe the family was taking good care of Harry after all.

"The boy is upstairs, take him and bring him back at the end of the week," she said moving away from view. They stared at her in shock, she was strict. The large man stared at the two before going up himself muttering insults to the two wizards and about how useless they were. He came back after two minutes holding another baby in his arms. This one was smaller and sleeping. Oh, this was Harry then. He pushed Harry into Lupin's arms and slammed the door shut, causing little Harry to wake up.

"Well they seem rather sweet," Lupin said sarcasm heard in his voice. Harry was looking up at his two uncles, not really sure who they were, but they seemed nice enough. "So we get him for a week?"

"Guess so," Sirius said. "C'mon, let's take him back to my place. Maybe we can take him to visit Ian sometime. You know where he lives right?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah I do, and I think Ian would love that," Lupin said. "He hasn't seen you in forever."

"Forever is a long time, we'll go with a couple years," Sirius said as they apparated out of the neighbourhood not to be seen for another week.


	5. Chapter 5

**Finally I was able to post this. Sorry, I know I said I'd post this last week but the hotel I stayed in did not have free wi-fi (shame on the Sheraton).**

**Okay before story starts I just wanted to point out again that Yassen will be very OOC in this story and moreso in this chapter I guess. I also do not have ages for either Yassen or Ian so for now I'm going with 21 for Yassen and 25 for Ian, if that seems young for either I'm sorry but this is how this will work because it follows what I wrote for this chapter. This makes Yassen 10 in 2000 (again last chapter I mentioned I made both stories a _now_ story instead of a _then_ story.**

**Another wordy chapter I'm sorry. There's a lot of fottball/soccer in this chapter just because I'm a huge football fan (it's my main sport and I play representative :D). Oh and for future reference I'm a Real Madrid fan.**

**I also want to start thank you's to people who reviewed so far (this will happen every 5 chapters and will include only people who review for those 5 chapters) Thanks too: pulchra fabula, ALBANY, CrystalGriffin, XxHelixRiderxX, DammitimmaD, HarbringerLady, biblioholic, , M28, anime-lyric, Xxlillian321xX, and The new Flock member.**

**Apologies for long AN but here's the story and hope it was worth the wait.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ALEX RIDER THEY BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING AND ANTHONY HOROWITZ RESPECTIVELY.**

Chapter 5

"When are you going to hire that nanny you first mentioned when I moved in?" Yassen asked as he brought Alex into the room. He had just finished changing the boy and now had to feed him.

"I'm not sure . . ." Ian replied. "I thought we were doing pretty well without one . . . Yassie," Ian said. He felt a pillow hit him hard on the back of his head. "Oww!" Ian said laughing. It had been three days since the gay couple had come up to them and, even though Yassen had said never to speak of it again, Ian had continued to bring it up, much to Yassen's displeasure. "Oh, c'mon Yassen, I was just kidding."

"Whatever," Yassen said now finished feeding Alex. He was trying to make Alex burp, but Alex was too busy laughing at the scene in front of him. "Little brat has no idea what we're talking about and he thinks it's hilarious. C'mon you've got to burp," he said to the baby. Finally Alex did so. "I just wanted to point out that we've been lucky so far that Blunt's given us missions at different times so that we would be able to take care of Alex. And when he did send us on missions at the same time it was only for a couple hours around Britain which meant we could find someone to take care of Alex easily. But soon we're going to both be gone for long term missions and Alex will need someone to take care of him. Someone that he will be familiar with and we both trust." Yassen sat on the other side of the couch of where Ian was sitting. Ian had nodded and mumbled something – a yes perhaps? – but was distracted and probably didn't hear him. Yassen sighed. Ian had the attention span of a peanut. The television was on and Ian was watching a football match. It was a friendly between Chelsea and Real Madrid. Ian had really gotten into the game and was screaming at the television. Yassen laid Alex in the little crib beside the couch. He activated the toys hanging above Alex to play around, keep the baby busy for a while.

"Wow, you're really into this aren't you?" Yassen asked.

"Yes, but Drogba can't score on their bloody keeper Iker Casillas. Seriously, what the bloody hell? Casillas isn't _that_ good," Ian said huffing. They watched as another player Kalou tried another pass to Drogba. Drogba shot towards the top right corner of the net, but Casillas dove and saved the shot.

"Seems pretty good to me," Yassen said. "Good reflexes in my opinion."

"Yeah well, whatever, somehow Drogba or Kalou will score. Or if they bring in that player they recently traded Fernando Torres. Torres is a good forward, should've seen him scoring for Liverpool. Glad Chelsea bought him."

"How much?" Yassen asked.

"50 million euros," Ian replied.

Yassen stared in shock. "Maybe I should have become a footballer. Pays better than jobs I used to get from SCORPIA." Ian laughed. Yassen? A footballer? He couldn't imagine it.

They continued to watch the game. The Madrid team had set up a counter attack and were now at an advantage against the Chelsea defense four on two.

"_Ozil to di Maria. Di Maria to Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo's dribbling it past Chelsea defense Ashley Cole and does it successfully. He passes back to Mesut Ozil. Ozil to Karim Benzema. Benzema crosses, di Maria misses the header! Ronaldo's there for the loose ball and goal! Real Madrid leads 2-0. What a fantastic play!_"

Yassen watched as Ian suddenly stood up freaking out. "No way!" he yelled. "Di Maria was offside!"

"_What a fantastic goal. The players are looking for an offside but the referee won't have any of it. Here's a replay."_ They watched as the slow motion of the play and it was confirmed that the di Maria was most definitely _not_ offside. "_It's not offside. The referee seems to be getting frustrated and has given Ashley Cole a yellow card. This is going to be a hard one for Chelsea to come back from. Oh look here's the happy coach Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea fans don't seem to be taking well to the previous head-coach of Chelsea now managing Madrid . . ._"

"Bloody traitor that man," Ian said. "Went to Inter Milan and helped them win a UEFA and then moved to Madrid. Missed him when he left though. Great coach." Yassen smiled, amused that Ian's sentence from Ian went from 'bloody traitor' to 'great coach.' "You watch any football before?"

Yassen smiled. "Sure. My father was a big fan of football. Brought me to a couple of games when I was a kid. Umm . . . FC Spartak Moscow if I remember correctly. He bought me several jerseys and jackets and I even had signed posters, balls and jerseys. They're in storage right now actually. A fall back in case I lose enough money, I would have sold the items. They would be worth a lot even today, yes?" Yassen asked. Ian smiled and nodded. More like millions if they were signed by the right players and such.

"Was your father a wizard?" Ian asked.

"Not that I know of. I think both my parents were normal humans."

"So . . . Madrid versus Chelsea, who are you vouching for?" Ian asked after a while.

"Madrid," Yassen replied standing to get a drink from the kitchen. It was half time.

"But—but why? They aren't that good!" Ian said throwing his arms in the air because of frustration.

"Because I used to go to some of their games when we lived in Madrid. I was 10 then. My father took me to several of their games too. Bought me jerseys, balls etcetera. I have a lot of football souvenirs in storage. Most likely more than they have in small vendor stalls. I even think I have a signed Iker Casillas jersey as well as jerseys from Zinedine Zidane and Raul. My father had high connections. He set me a meet and greet with the team." Ian stared Yassen for a moment, shocked by what he had just been told. Yassen? Being a _normal _kid? Well a normal _rich_ kid actually.

"And here you go, not telling me that you know a lot about football," Ian said grumbling. "When Alex is older maybe we should take him to some games. I'd like him to be something other than an agent for MI6 . . . or assassin. Maybe if he became a famous footballer then he'd pay for retirement."

"I have enough for retirement now . . . more than that actually," Yassen said. "I got paid a lot for some of the assassinations that I had to do. You have no idea."

"30 Euros says Madrid wins," Yassen said.

"Deal," Ian replied shaking Yassen's out stretched hand. Just then the doorbell rang. Yassen and Ian looked at each other both raising and eye-brow. "Did you invite anyone?" Yassen asked, as Ian lowered the volume on the television. Ian shook his head. Yassen placed his hand on his hidden gun handle as Ian went to go answer the door.

ARxHP

Sirius and Remus stood at the door of Ian Rider's home. Remus was holding Harry who was sleeping and sucking his small thumb in a very adorable manner. Sirius knocked on the door and was greeted by Ian who looked very surprised to see the two men holding a baby.

"Sirius? Remus?" Ian asked.

"Hey Ian," Remus said, a major déjà vu from he had visited from the last time. The only different thing was that Sirius was with him and there was another person behind Ian. He was tensed and looking at the door wearily, his hand on his hip.

"Jeez, I wish you'd call or something before just dropping off. You had me worried there for a second," Ian said scratching the back of his head, laughing nervously. He invited his two friends in. Yassen was looking at them cautiously, not knowing who these men were.

"You're a banker. What would you be nervous about?" Lupin asked taking off his coat and putting it on the coat hanger.

"Oh you know, robberies, people who I denied loans to with a grudge. Life as a muggle banker's hard you know!" Ian said laughing. Yassen gave him a funny look then rolled his eyes. _Tch, good cover genius_. Ian could almost hear the sarcasm in the assassin's unvoiced opinion. The look was all he needed.

"So who's this?" Lupin asked handing Harry over to Sirius.

"Yassen Gregorovich," Yassen said. Lupin held his hand out to shake Yassen's. Yassen took it hesitantly, but managed to give a firm one nevertheless. "I'm one of Ian's co-workers at the bank. We decided to just bunk together. It saves money and time getting to and from work and all. Furthermore, home expenses and utilities are much cheaper when you divided them between two people."

"Yeah?" Lupin asked. "Well we're old school mates of Ian's. And yeah we live together too. Food and other utilities _are_ much cheaper when you have to share a home." Ian smiled; it was good to see Yassen talking to someone other than him and the people from MI6. Even if he was talking just to cover up something.

"So Ian," Sirius said. "Where's little Alex? Remus told me of how much he resembled John." Ian went over to the crib and picked up the half asleep baby. They traded and looked at each other's children. Both were half asleep, eyes half closed, but Alex seemed to be a little more awake, moving around in the strangers arms. However, Harry seemed more comfortable even though he, too, was in someone else's arms.

"Heh, they're so cute," Sirius said poking at Alex's stomach. All of a sudden Alex started to cry. Sirius, shocked, almost dropped him, but caught him again.

"Here," Yassen said. Yassen took Alex from Sirius and started to rock the baby back and forth. After a couple of minutes Alex had calmed down. Yassen continued to stare at the two men wearily. Ian caught the stare and realized what Yassen was thinking.

"They're wizards Yassen," Ian said taking a seat at the couch and raising the volume of the television. The game had started again. Yassen nodded then relaxed.

"Hogwarts?" Yassen asked. Ian nodded. He offered for Sirius to hold Alex again and Sirius willingly took him wanting to try again. "Just don't poke him. Let him get used to you." Yassen took a seat on one of the chairs in the living room. Ian smiled. Yassen was warming up to them . . . sort of.

"Is he a wizard too?" Lupin asked. Ian nodded. "Did he go to another school? Durmstrang?"

"No, he was . . . homeschooled," Ian replied. "I think. Right Yassen?"

"Yes, I was," Yassen said, lying. Both were looking at the television and were suddenly encompassed in the Madrid-Chelsea game. Sirius and Lupin stared at what the two were watching. There were a whole bunch of men in shorts and t-shirts running around a field kicking a ball around passing it to each other. 10 of the players were wearing blue and 10 others were wearing white. Two of the players were standing in front of – nets? – with large gloves on and different long sleeved uniforms from that of the others. Sirius placed the now sleeping Alex into his crib.

"Can I put Harry beside Alex?" Lupin asked. Ian nodded, not taking his eyes off the television. Lupin placed Harry beside Alex and then sat down beside Sirius who was beside Ian on the couch. They saw a blue shirt man – Torres? – kick the ball hard trying to get it into some sort of net, but one of the long sleeved men wearing the big gloves – Casillas? – hit it away. Ian slapped his knee, frustrated, while Yassen smiled satisfactorily.

"What is this?" Sirius asked.

"It's called football, or soccer, but soccer is more of an Americanised term," Ian said, smiling. He'd forgotten that this was a completely muggle sport and that Sirius and Remus wouldn't know much about it. "It's a muggle sport. Lots of fun to play, not as fun to watch but it can be if the teams playing are good."

"What do you do?" Remus asked. Ian and Yassen explained the rules of the game 11 on 11 including the keeper, which were the long sleeved players. Players were only allowed to use their feet, except for the goal keeper who could use their hands. You couldn't trip players purposefully and if you did use your hands it was a foul and the other team got the ball. The object of the game was to get the ball into the net which was guarded by the goal keeper, etcetera, etcetera.

"How dull, there's only one ball and you're on the ground the whole time!" Sirius said. "Quidditch is more fun."

"Yes, but they don't show Quidditch on muggle television, now do they?" Ian asked. Lupin was shaking his head clearly entranced by the game. They watched as the referee blew the whistle as the ball was passed. One of the linesman had his flag straight out with his arms.

"What was that?" Lupin asked.

"It's called 'offside.' It is when the ball is passed to an offensive player and he is past all of the defenders on the other team," Yassen explained.

"Oh," Lupin said. The four men watched the matched, Sirius, himself, was eventually entranced by the game. It was rather fascinating after a while, and Ian seemed to get really frustrated whenever the blue team didn't score. Eventually the game ended with 5 minutes injury time and Real Madrid won the game 3-1. Ian seemed rather frustrated and stood to give Yassen some muggle money. Yassen chuckled as Ian's colourful vocabulary broke out. The two wizards stared at the two men, amused at the display in front of them. They suddenly heard a small cry from the crib. The four men rushed over to see what was wrong. They saw Alex giving a crying Harry a glare and the little hand of Alex was gripping Harry's short black hair.

"Oh you _are_ your father's son aren't you?" Yassen said chuckling as he grabbed the angry little baby. Little Alex gave him a baby version of John's glare. Yassen tickled the glaring baby's tummy and the glare disappeared, replaced, instead, with a smile. Lupin picked the crying Harry up and started to rock him back and forth, calming the young boy down.

"Alex," Ian said giving the smiling Alex a serious look, "you can't do that. It hurts people." Alex looked up at his uncle curiously. Then realizing the tone of his uncles voice started to cry. At the start of Alex's crying Harry started crying again. Lupin and Yassen sighed giving Ian a glare.

"Way to go genius!" Sirius said smacking the back of Ian's head. "The kid's a baby, give him a break."

"Well, he needs to know what he did wrong," Ian said crossing his arms.

"Though he probably doesn't exactly understand what you said. Just the tone you used to say it," Yassen said. Ian looked at Alex who had finally calmed down. There were still some small tears forming in the corner of his eyes but they weren't that much. Ian sighed and moved towards the little Alex.

"Sorry, bud," Ian said. "But you can't do that okay?" Ian was trying make his voice as soft as possible, to avoid upsetting the little baby. Alex looked up at his uncle and smiled. Harry was smiling up at his 'uncles' as well. Ian and Yassen sighed as Alex finally calmed down. This was going to be so much work. They laid the two babies back into the crib, making sure that there was some sort of barrier between them to avoid another 'baby fight.'

The men sat around the table again, the football game was over and the channel now showing highlights. Ian gave the television a dirty glare before returning his attention to his friends. "So, how's being with Harry? How long have you had him for?"

"Oh since Sunday," Lupin said. "We were supposed to have him a little earlier, but you know, Sirius and his accidents." Ian laughed.

"What happened?" Ian asked.

"Sirius bought himself one of those motorcycles and went for a joy ride. He was way over the muggle speed limit and crashed into a wall. The weeks he spent at St. Mungo's was actually supposed to be the time we were supposed to stay with Harry. I'll tell you something here Ian. I don't like that family that Dumbledore's making Harry stay with. It makes no sense. They're absolutely horrible. They have their own baby, which they treat much better than Harry. I dare say Harry basically is being abused by those muggles. You should have seen Harry's size compared to that of the other baby. I'd say perhaps half the size or so?"

"I don't know Remus, that baby was pretty big. Speaking of which, Alex is pretty small himself, no?" Sirius asked.

"Well Yassen and I work a lot and we're both gone, which I might add we aren't, we leave Alex with a nanny, but I'm searching for a permanent one. It's hard you know. Being a banker is very demanding." Yassen nodded in agreement.

"We can stay with him if the both of you need to go to work or something," Sirius said.

"That's very kind of you Sirius," Yassen said. "But we'll manage. I'm sure both of you have jobs as well to make income for your family. How long does Harry stay with you, I suppose he does not live with you full time?"

"No he doesn't we see him for a week, I guess, each five months or so. Until he's five that is," Sirius said. "Then we get full guardianship."

"Yes, but you will need an income to support him do you not? What do you do for a living? A wizarding job I assume?" Sirius and Lupin looked at each other then looked down at their laps. "Perhaps I could be of some assistance to your current unemployment status. I have a couple contacts that would be willing to employ you, of course depending on your skill that is." Ian nudged Yassen, hard. "What? If they are in need of a source of income I am willing to aid them."

"_What job and what contact_?" Ian whispered harshly into Yassen's ear.

"Not the contact you are thinking of. I have very wealthy associates in high government or civilian positions that would pay very kindly for body guarding positions. And yes, they are wizarding associates."

"We're pretty good fighters," Lupin said.

"More like best duellers in Hogwarts," Sirius said. "With the addition of John and Ian of course."

"Well I know a colleague that would enjoy having such body guards, especially if your skills rival those of John. My colleague was fond of John," Yassen said.

"You knew John?" Lupin asked.

Yassen nodded. "Yes, he helped me while I was at school, studying for muggle accounting. He revealed to me that he was a wizard after a couple of years working with him when he said that he found out that I was one as well. We had a couple of for fun duels and I must admit he was rather skilled and taught me most of his techniques and tricks. I'm rather thankful for that, my parents were hesitant in teaching me defense spells and dark arts."

"I see," Lupin said. "Why were you home schooled?"

"My family was wealthy and my parents thought I unfit for me to be going to school with commoners."

"If I am correcting accounting is not the best paying muggle job there is. Why become an accountant?"

"Because, despite your belief that they are not the best paying muggle job, they do pay quite a bit depending on the skill level of the accountant. Aside from that I happen to really like numbers . . . and being in charge of other people's money." Yassen's lip twitched upwards. A smirk?

"Are you related to the Russian wand maker Gregorovich?" Sirius suddenly asked. "Because from what I hear, Gregorovich was also blond when he was younger. Made great wands for the students of Durmstrang. Did he make yours?"

"I'm not sure if I am related this this Gregorovich because my parents were rather secretive about the family tree. But my wand was made by Ollivander, the man who makes the wand for you Brits if I am correct. My parents preferred his over Gregorovich's wands."

"Do you want to eat dinner?" Ian asked, picking up Alex who looked like he was about to cry. "I think that Alex is hungry and Harry should be too. . ." Ian looked down at Harry who was sleeping soundly, clearly not hungry. Sirius thought of waking him but changed his mind when he realized that if he woke Harry, the baby might cry. He gently lifted Harry out of the crib and tried hard to keep the baby from waking. Yassen had gone to the kitchen to fetch Alex's bottle and given it to Ian to feed Alex.

"No thanks, we should be heading back. We've got some cleaning to do around the house and Kreacher's being a bit of a bugger for not doing what he's supposed to be doing . . . well at least properly," Sirius said. Yassen took a card out of his pocket and handed it to the two men.

"Well in that case feel free to contact me at this number . . . or sorry, this address. I forgot no cellphones. You can send me an owl and I'll reply for a meeting place and meeting time. Send one any time. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible." The two men nodded and said their thanks. They stepped out of the front door and apparated out of the area. Ian and Yassen re-entered the Chelsea home. Yassen had cooked dinner, a Russian delicacy, and they began to eat.

"You're a very good cook," Ian said after taking a bite, "and a very good liar."

"Thank you," Yassen said.

"Very good cover up, you think you'll remember everything you said today?"

"I'm going to write up what I said tonight, just in case. However, I will have to admit some of those were not lies."

"Which ones were lies? Or a better question would be which were _not_ lies?"

"My wand maker was indeed Ollivander, I was home schooled because my parents did not want me to be surrounded by commoners, and I think that's all. Oh and I happen to actually like numbers . . . and money." Yassen smiled.

"Of course," Ian said taking another bite. "Damn you are good."


	6. Chapter 6

**I just wanted to apologize that it takes so long for me to update this story. I was done this chapter for a good two weeks but couldn't post it on FFN. It was supposed to be posted before my March Break but there was something wrong which updating the chapters. Then I had to leave for MB, and I just recently found out how to fix the problem thanks to the forums. It was frustrating I'm really sorry if I disappointed any of you with this chapter, I thought it was pretty good, but you really never know how the readers will react. I am so thankful that I've gotten so many alerts for this story and thanks to everyone who reads it. I know that there are people who are reading this story because of the hits I see :D **

**Alright, I don't mind not recieving reviews, but some constructive critisism and questions about the story would be really helpful as it would get the juices in my brain to work some more. Insightful questions asked really help me get to know what you guys want to read about and helps me to develop the story as well. So it's not really just my questions about what I'm writing about but yours as well (did this make sense to any of you?). It would be great to implement my answers to your questions via this story. Anyway without further ado, here's the story. I hope you guys like it!**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ALEX RIDER THEY BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING AND ANTHONY HOROWITZ RESPECTIVELY.**

Chapter 6

Four and a half year old Alex Rider stared up at his two uncles as they explained the importance of not going _anywhere_ with strangers, no matter who the stranger was, what the stranger offered, and how nice the stranger seemed. Ian had said that strangers may want to do bad things to him. He said that they might want to hurt him.

"Why would they want to hurt me Ian?" Alex asked. He never called either of them 'uncle' for they both hated the title, as Ian had told him when he was three. "I didn't do anything bad to them did I? And if I did couldn't I just say that I was sorry and then everyone would be okay again?"

"Because Alex," Ian began, "not all the people out there are nice people like me and Yassen and Mr. And Mrs. Harris. They just want to hurt people for no reason, or hurt you to hurt us. Saying sorry might not make them feel any better because sometimes these people are just very mad and hate for no reason."

"Why would they hate though? Isn't hating a bad thing to do? You guys said to never hate, just to 'innensely dislike.'"

"It's 'immensely,' Alex," Yassen said. "And sometimes, some people get mad enough to hate because Ian and I can't lend them money because they haven't been paying their debts."

"What's a debpt?" Alex asked staring at Yassen with wide brown eyes.

"_Debt_, Alex," Yassen said. "And a debt is when you say you're going to pay something in a period of time but you don't."

"So, it's like if I lend Tom my crayon and want it back later?" Alex asked. Tom Harris was his best friend in prep school. Tom was funny and very smart. He also liked to play football, and cheered for Chelsea, just like Alex did. They had met the first day after Alex had accidentally spilled his juice on Tom's picture. Tom was real angry at first, but after Alex helped him make a new one, which was way better than his first, he and Tom became really good friends. The best of friends actually. He would sometimes sleep over at Tom's if Yassen and Ian were working late for if they had to go overseas.

"Something like that . . ." Yassen said sighing then ruffling Alex's messy blond hair. "Now what did we just tell you about strangers?"

"That I should never go with them anywhere even if they seem like they're really nice and offer me candy or other things. That I shouldn't go with them whether they are a man, a woman, or an older student," Alex said.

"What happens if they try to force you to go with them?" Ian asked.

"I scream RAPE real loudly and then run away. If they pick me up then I kick and punch and scream real loud."

"Good boy," Yassen said grinning. "Now go pack, our flight to Switzerland is in five hours and we don't want to miss that do we?"

"No!" Alex said standing up fast. "Because missing the flight means missing snowboarding in the Alps and Swiss chocolate!" He ran up to his room to continue packing to their week-long trip. It was the first week of Christmas vacation out of, a three week long vacation, (since Alex was only in prep school he had an extra week compared to that of the elementary, middle and high schoolers). Ian and Yassen had finished packing the night before, and, despite telling Alex to do so as well, he had decided to leave that last minute.

Yassen laughed as the five year old ran up the stairs, trying to go as fast as him small legs would carry him, and, considering Alex's age, that was pretty fast.

"Did you pack everything you need?" Ian asked Yassen. Yassen nodded.

"Case files, weapons, gadgets?"

"Yes I did."

"What did Smithers give you this time?"

"He decided to give me an IPhone 4G with a radar for heat signatures, electronic bugs and normal uses of an I Phone. He gave me some headphones that contain an inline mike that can reach up to 500 meters depending on who or what I want to hear. As well as the usual 9.00 mm Makarov pistol with silencer. He also gave me the Dragunov sniper rifle with heat and night scope. Just in case apparently."

"Nice, all Russian weapons I see, as usual," Ian said.

"It's not that I do not like weapons that originated from other countries, it's just that I feel that I must choose these weapons. After all, John taught me first with all Russian weapons. He said that they looked right and seemed to fit right with me. I did not, and to this day do not, disagree with his statement. How about yourself? Are you prepared?"

"Yeah, Smithers gave me the same things except for the Russian weapons. I have an M19 as well as the Walther 2000 sniper rifle."

"If I am correct you do yours on Tuesday and I do mine on Thursday?" Yassen asked.

"Yes, mine is Michael Reese and yours is Jonathan Stives?" Yassen nodded. Michael Reese and Jonathan Stives were two working partners, both rich and intelligent. They were both in their late-twenties, and had enough money to buy the Newcastle Football team (which both were considering of doing to increase revenue).

Yassen's target was Jonathan Stives, aged 27. Stives was a Canadian born law graduate from the University of Ottawa. He was raised in Sudbury, Ontario with a devout Roman Catholic family. He had one little sister; Elene aged 18 who currently attends the University of Ottawa for Medicine, and one younger brother, James aged 21, attending the University of Waterloo for engineering. Stives was currently paying for his siblings' tuition and more. He had bought a bungalow home for his parents, a wish that they had had for a long time. In addition to aiding his family financially, Stives had also started an organization, called Stives to Strive, for children with social problems or problems in life. The organization was founded to help children suffering from abuse and coping with it in the wrong way such as turning to drugs. All in all he seemed like a pretty good guy. Great in all actuality.

Ian's target, Michael Reese, aged 27, was similar to his partner. Reese was an American born law graduate from the University of Harvard. He was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a devout Baptist family. He had two little sisters and two younger brothers; Jaclyn, aged 18, Marianne, aged 20, Andrei, aged 21 and his twin Alexei, aged 21. Like Stives he paid for his siblings tuition, Jaclyn going for an accounting degree in the University of Texas, Marianne a law degree in Harvard, Andrei an engineering degree in the University of Waterloo (with James Stives) and Alexei a medicine degree at John Hopkins University. Like Stives, Reese also helped his family financially and started his own organization, except his helped with adults who had suffered from abuse and currently coping with it wrong.

Both men were rich, gave back to their communities, and in all seemed to be angels from above, providing input regarding current issues and providing aid to all countries around the world. However, MI6, Interpol, CIA, and several other organizations, knew of what these men were truly capable of. They were dangerous sociopaths, with the ability, intelligence and power to do whatever they want, whenever they wanted to do it. Both had been involved with animal and human experimentation. All using torturous, inhuman methods to research the human body and mind. They not only dabbled in human experimentation, but also sold drugs to children and adults around the world. The organizations they had both created and maintained over the years were frauds. Both were to get closer to their target market, not really helping the victims of the abuse.

The CIA, Interpool and MI6 had been researching for ways to take these two men down. It was hard, without a doubt, that the deaths of these two men would cause uproar, in both the social community and the financial community. It was difficult, but doable. Over the years MI6 and the CIA had strategically placed men and women in high positions in the Stives and Reese companies. If the two men died, then the power, and the money, would go to the capable hands of those men and women. They would, of course, be going to the CIA and MI6 for consultation but it wouldn't be often and the men and women chosen would be free to make their own decisions regarding the company.

"Ian! Yassen!" they suddenly heard from above.

"Yes Alex?" Ian asked Alex suddenly appeared atop the staircase.

"I'm done packing," he said.

"Well then bring it down," Yassen said.

"It's too heavy," Alex said, whining. "I tried to but I fell and the bag almost fell on me!"

"Alright, alright!" Ian said sighing. He gave Yassen an apologetic glance. Yassen nodded. He would have to pack the car himself then. At least, until Ian and Alex made their way downstairs.

"Ian," Alex started as they walked up the stairs. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot kiddo."

"When we going to see Harry again? And Uncle Remus and Uncle Sirius?"

Ian thought about it as he lifted Alex's bag. It _was_ heavy. "What did you pack in here a cow?" Ian asked.

"No, silly Ian, cows don't fit in my bag!" Ian smiled at his nephew. "You haven't answered my question yet Ian!"

"Sorry, how about this, I'll go call Remus while we're at Switzerland and see if they can come visit and maybe stay over. Maybe we can go watch the Chelsea versus Liverpool game coming up."

"Alright!" Alex yelled as he jumped into the air pumping his fist. Ian knew that Alex absolutely _adored_ the Chelsea team and aspired to become a professional footballer. _Better than what Yassen and I are_. He knew that Harry wasn't treated properly with his blood relatives and regularly looked forward to the weeklong visits with his two uncles. However, when little Harry reached the age of five the July coming up Sirius and Remus would get full guardianship of him. They couldn't wait for it and it was visible when they had visited last Christmas. Harry had been beaming with happiness when he had been told that he wouldn't have to stay with his wretched uncle and aunt once he turned five.

Alex, however, had grown a privileged life. Trips all over the world, to some of the biggest countries including Spain, Japan, Canada, U.S.A, Australia, France (which was a neighbouring country anyway), Russia, and several, several more. He had been taught karate, kung-fu, and would start _official_ classes (he had been home schooled by Yassen, sometimes Ian, but mainly Yassen) that his uncles would pay for. He played house-league football in the local park as the striker or central midfielder and was being had been taught five different languages (French, Russian, Spanish, Mandarin and, of course, English) and was currently being taught German. Alex could ski, swim, and snow board, play the guitar and the piano, albeit all at rookie levels, but nevertheless, all this and Alex was the mere age of four and a half. They had also shown him a bit of magic and a few very basic spells, but told him that they were secrets and that no one could know about them, not even Tom. In all Alex was much better off than Harry, but he was taught not to take everything for granted and to not be a show off, especially around Harry. After all, he might end up making Harry feel bad. Ian and Yassen had hopefully been successful in teaching Alex the necessity of being modest and humble about his skills and talents.

Ian and Alex had finally made their way down the stairs. Ian was surprised to see the living room emptied of their bags and other necessity items. Yassen was one quick packer . . . or did he use magic to help him with this? Ian shrugged, as long as everything was packed into the car everything was fine. Yassen walked back into the room, rubbing his calloused hands together. He moved his shades to the back of his head resting on his ears and covering part of his blond hair. He wore white jeans and a black t-shirt. On his right wrist he had a handsome looking Rolex and on his left wrist an Adidas bracelet. He had on a pair of Adidas skateboard shoes. A rather simple attire, but underneath it all, Ian knew of the dangers that the assassin was hiding.

Ian was similarly hiding his weapons and gadgets in his clothing. He wore faded blue jeans and a white t-shirt that said _Just Do It_ in bold black colors as well as a large Nike symbol on the back. He wore Nike shoes and like Yassen wore his Rolex watch and a band around his wrist, but instead of his right it was his left. They had their watches synchronized, just in case something happened. Both their wands were hidden within their sleeves, per usual, and both had video recording contacts on (the same as the color of their eyes), as to record anything that they did and to replay them later for references.

"Is that the last bag?"

"Yeah," Ian said. Yassen went over to take the bag and grunted at the weight of the four year old's bag. "What did you pack Alex? Your bed?"

Alex laughed again. "No, Yassen. That would be silly. We're staying in a hotel, they have beds there. I only packed what was necessarily!"

"_Necessary,_ Alex," Ian said. "Not necessarily. Do you have everything?"

Alex scrunched his face in thought before answering. "I think so . . . Wait! One second!" They watched as Alex ran up the stairs and came down a minute later holding a teddy bear wearing a blue Chelsea t-shirt. On the back it said Torres and the number 9. "I can't forget Jackson!"

Ian smiled; of course Alex couldn't forget Jackson. They had bought the bear for Alex right after he turned one. Torres had stayed on the team for the four years since he was last traded. They walked out of the house and towards a clean black car with a white racing stripe down the sides (Ian had taken to the white stripe when they had first seen it and did not want it to be painted over in black, much to Yassen's displeasure). Yassen took the bag and carried it to the back of the car where, surprisingly, it fit.

Yassen started the car as Ian placed Alex in his car seat. Alex detested the car seat and constantly complained that he was a big boy and could ride without one like his uncle's. Ian began to play the movie _Toy Story 3_ to help Alex calm down a little and gave the boy control of the remote. Alex had watched the movie dozens of times, but it continued to remain as his favourite.

"Alex," Yassen called. Alex didn't answer. "Alex!" Alex looked up at Yassen as he paused the movie.

"Hey!"

"Alex, I need to give you your mission for this trip. But if you don't want it . . ."

"No! I want it!" Alex yelled cutting his uncle off. Alex loved trips that involved him doing missions. The previous summer he had gone to Germany and posed as a secret agent who was the son of Ian and Yassen's nephew (which really wasn't too hard because they were a family anyway). But the fun parts were when he had to speak only French (even though they went to Germany) and to secretly shoot all the black haired blue eyed men. He only got a couple without Yassen or Ian seeing him.

"What's my mission?"

"Your mission, _Agent_ Rider," Alex gave a big smile, he _loved_ being called agent. "Is to infiltrate the enemy base and gain the trust of all the female workers in the area. On this mission you are only allowed to speak French unless either of us says so. Understood?"

"So basically get inside the hotel and make friends with all the females who work there while speaking French?" Alex asked. Yassen nodded. Alex furrowed his brows in deep thought. "But the both of you just told me not to talk to strangers!"

"Yes we did, Alex," Ian said. "But these women are nice ladies. If they weren't nice then why would they be working in a hotel instead of doing something that's bad?"

"But you said that nice working people might be really mean on the inside. Even if it's really deep inside and we can't see what they're really thinking!"

Yassen sighed. That was the truth of what they had told him. _And our reality as spies._ "They are . . . umm . . . old colleagues of mine Alex, from when I went to high school."

"All of them?" Alex asked. He had his small arms crossed across his small chest. Yassen had to admit that it was a pretty tough lie to pass. It made it even harder that the boy he was lying to was smart for his age and they had taught him to try and catch lies. The 'umm' in the middle of his sentence was of no assistance to his cause either.

"Fine. Not _all _of them are my friends, but some of them are."

"But then how would I know who were your friends or not?"

This time it was Ian's turn to give a heavy sigh. "How about we make a deal. For this one trip you are allowed to talk to strangers, regarded that they be only female strangers, and that when you do talk to them, Yassen and I will be nearby to make sure that you don't get hurt if they are really mean. Is that okay with you, Alex?"

"Okay, but what do I do after I make friends with them?" Alex asked.

"You can introduce us to them so that we can make friends too," Ian answered.

"Like a date?"

Yassen was about to reply a no, but Ian beat him to the response, "Sure Alex like a date of sorts." Yassen gave Ian a 'what-the-hell-are-you-telling-the-four-year-old?' look. Ian gave a funny smile in return. Alex, however, had started to giggle and began to play _Toy Story 3_ again.

Alex gave a big smile. He thought dates were funny.

* * *

**Alright AN at the end but this is IMPORTANT. That date thing at the end is really getting to me an I want to be able to implement it (but might not end up doing it because I may not feel like writing some sort of date scene). IF I were to do a date scene who would be the one dating Ian or Yassen? Or both? If it were both would it be a double date or just two seperate ones? I'm not sure, but I want to see how this goes. I've got a little scenario in my mind but, I also want to read your opinions.**

**Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yo, I just wanted to truly apologize for how long this is taking me to write. I know that I said that I would update faster and all that, but I really can't. As in I physically do not have the time to write. I have a list of excuses, but I'm certain that you would not want to hear any of them. ****Just another warning, do not expect quick updates, classes are amping up because of exams and over the summer I will be going to Germany for two weeks or so.**

**I wish to implement the date thing, but I still do not have enough insight on how I should do it, I have two reviews with two different perspectives. Rating has been changed to T for some language (it's not that bad but better safe than sorry).**

**So here's the story. I apologize if it is disappointing, but I needed to implement the HP section of the crossover into the story one way or another. Again I apologize for the length of time you had to wait and if this chapter is not up to my usualy standards or up to your par.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ALEX RIDER THEY BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING AND ANTHONY HOROWITZ RESPECTIVELY**

Chapter 7

Ian smiled at the female clerk standing behind the check in desk. The ride to Switzerland had been rather uneventful and, dare he say it, boring. The ride to the hotel was the same; they had been to Switzerland before and seen all the sights needed to be seen. Even Alex seemed rather bored and was asleep for the entire trip, give for bathroom breaks and eating meals. He would point at something and then realize that it really wasn't worth his breath and then put his hand back down. Ian felt sorry for the small boy but was impressed that Alex had not complained about the boredom he was feeling. Perhaps Alex knew that when they got there it would be more interesting and that the more patient he was the better his reward would feel. After all, they had taught him that the best things in life are the things that you wait for and work hard for.

"Mr. Etienne Ridier, here are your key cards. I must tell you that the view in your room is spectacular! I do hope that you enjoy it!" she said, a thick French accent with her, surprisingly, wonderful English. Then again she was a clerk at the front desk; she had to speak a couple different languages. Especially at the five star hotel such as this one, the Badrutts Palace Hotel.

"_Merci beaucoup, Wendy,_" he replied in French adding his own little accent. He returned her smile with his own charming one. She blushed deeply and immediately turned away. Her co-workers also blushed at his smile and giggled at her predicament. Just then Yassen walked in carrying a sleeping Alex. The boy had his head buried into the crook of Yassen's neck.

"Is everything set, Ian?" Yassen asked, adjusting Alex's position. Ian nodded and gave Yassen one of the room cards. Yassen left with Alex towards the elevator to put the boy in a proper bed.

"_This is my brother, Gregory Ridier,_" Ian explained to the ladies who seemed to be more disappointed, than appalled at the sight of the two men with the small boy. "_And our nephew Aleksander Ridier, Aleks for short."_ The women smiled. They were relieved, just two brothers taking care of their nephew and bringing him for vacation.

"_Where is his father?"_ Wendy asked, curious that the birth father had not joined the trio for a boy's week out.

"_Oh," _Ian's face purposely fell. _"His mother and father died in a tragic plane crash when he was a small baby. Devastated my brother and I for a very long time. Luckily, little Aleks seems to take us in very well, me and Greg that is._"

Wendy's face also fell, guilty that she had asked such a question. Why didn't she just leave it at 'hi'? "_I am so sorry."_

Ian's face brightened immediately and he started to scratch the back of his head. "_Oh! No need to be sorry! It was a long time ago, and besides, Greg and I are faring well with Aleks and we all really care for each other!_" Wendy smiled. _"Well, I'd better be going; I need to help Gregory out with unpacking the bags. I do hope we see each other again sometime."_

"_Yes, of course, please enjoy your stay Mr. Ridier!"_

Ian left walked back to the car and, with the help of one of the bell hops, was able to take all of the bags up to their room in one trip. He gave the young bell hop a hearty tip and began to unpack his bags. It was quiet, meaning that Alex was still asleep. There were three separate bedrooms in their suite, a kitchen, a sitting room, and two bathrooms. A wonderful five star hotel all paid for by MI6 and, if they were lucky enough, they would be able to finish their mission quickly and spend some good quality time with Alex. He walked over to a room where the door was slightly left open. He could hear soft snoring from inside of the room and knew that Alex would be inside of it asleep. As he entered the room he saw Alex, sleeping peacefully cuddling with Jackson. Yassen, however, was nowhere to be found. Ian sighed and dropped Yassen's belongings off into another room. Where the hell was that man? They had only been there for half an hour or so. Whatever, Yassen was a big boy, who could kill and was armed. He would be more than capable to take care of himself and then some.

Ian walked over to the kitchen and began to cook a small dinner consisting of macaroni and cheese, more commonly known as mac and cheese. Ian sighed. He admitted, he wasn't much of a cook. After all, he had never really lived alone before in his life. When their parents had died he and John had shared a flat together. John did most of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry (though there wasn't much of that to do since they were both usually on missions). Then, when John met Helen, they allowed him to stay with them, and Helen did most of the cooking, cleaning and laundry whenever they were home. Even now Ian was not alone having Yassen to help him. He had to admit, Yassen was a much better cook, but Yassen had been living by himself for a much longer time.

The one thing that Ian had that Yassen didn't was most likely social skills. Yassen, being alone basically for his entire life, didn't have what Ian had. A family, friends, workmates, teammates. The closest thing Yassen had to a friend or family was most likely John. That's why during joint missions Ian would do all the talking. Yassen would stand in the back looking pretty (and rather literally according to some of their contacts).

"Ian?" he heard from behind him as he was pulled from his thoughts.

"Hey there Alex," Ian said. "Have a nice sleep?"

"Yeah," Alex said. He was dragging Jackson with one hand and pulled a seat at the table. He sat down and sat Jackson on the seat next to him. "Are you cooking food, Ian?"

"Why yes I am bud," Ian said.

"Is it good food?"

"Should be."

"Well, it's just, the last time you cooked, I got sick and throwed up in the toilet," Alex said, rather nervously. Ian turned around and saw Alex grab his stomach.

"It's you 'threw' up in the toilet not throwed up. And it's just a simple meal, Alex," Ian said chuckling. Boy did he remember what that meal was. Bad chicken, and he didn't even check. "Mac and cheese."

"Oh," Alex's face visible brightened. "Okay." They heard the door open and Alex peered around the door. "It's Yassen!"

"_Alex,_" Yassen said. "_What ever happened to speaking French on this mission?"_

"_But Ian isn't speaking French either. He was speaking English!"_ Alex pointed and accusing finger at Ian.

"_Je suis desolee. _I am sorry_. It's not my fault. I forgot!_" Ian smiled. He brought over the cooked mac and cheese to Alex and Jackson. "_Bon apetit."_

Alex stared at the food, for a moment as if expecting it to explode. Then he started to pick at it with his fork, very carefully of course. He stabbed one of the macaroni pieces with his fork and hesitantly brought it to his mouth. He bit it, shutting his eyes tight as if waiting for something horrible to happen. Nothing did. He didn't feel sick to his stomach; he didn't have a bad headache . . . nothing exploded like it did with that one pizza pocket that Ian had last given him. Actually it was pretty good. Alex gave his uncle a thumbs up and gave a wide grin. He continued to eat the mac and cheese and devoured it rather quickly.

"_Can I have some more, please?_" he asked holding up an empty plate.

Ian laughed, took the plate and ruffled Alex's hair. "_Sure bud, it wasn't that bad_?"

"_Non, it was actually really good._"

"_Well, that's a shock_," Yassen said, grinning as well. _"Might as well make some for me Ian, I want to taste this __**good**__ food that you have happened to create. Although from my recipe I assume?" _

Ian nodded and began to make some more, while Yassen read the papers and Alex played with the 3DS that they had bought him for Christmas.

Then they heard a knock on their door. Ian and Yassen stood stock still for a moment, before going back to what they were previously doing. Again the knocking persisted. Yassen stood up to get it telling Alex to stay with Ian, who did not stop his cooking, but secretly slid his wand closer to his hand. They were not expecting anyone and whoever this was could pose a threat to their mission, cover and their 'family.'

Yassen made his way to the door, his wand, too, slipped closer to his hand. He was relieved to see that there was a little hole used for peering outside to the hallway. He used it to see who was there.

"Oh, it's them." He opened the door and was greeted with the sight of young Harry Potter accompanied by his two uncles, Sirius and Remus. Harry was smiling brightly wearing a dark blue t-shirt, with white cargo pants. He was holding a 3DS in one hand, and holding Remus's hand with the other. His hair clean but at the same time messy (it was a mystery as to how the boy managed it) and he wore glasses, something rather new.

Ian came out of the kitchen to greet them followed by Alex who was shyly grabbing behind his uncle's leg but his face brightened when he saw Harry. The two boys ran to greet each other and started rambling about their video games and the latest things that they had seen and that it was so cool that they met up where they did.

"My uncle's said that they wanted to show me a surprise, and jeez this is so cool 'Lex!"

"Isn't it? Let's go too my room, I have my stuff set up in there already and we can watch the TV.!"

"Wicked!"

The two boys ran towards Alex's room and started to play in there, comparing 3DS games with each other. They heard the television open and then the commentary of a soccer game going on. It was faint but it was an English League game, Tottenham versus West Ham.

"I still don't understand that muggle technology and how it works, but Harry and clearly young Alex, are entranced by it," Lupin said shaking Yassen's hand. Yassen gave a quick nod.

"What bring you boys here?" Ian asked. He led them to the small sitting room in their suite.

"We are here on a mission from our employer," Remus said.

"How is Mikhail?" Yassen asked. "I have not talked to him in the longest of times."

"Oh he's good," Sirius said. He summoned some coffee using magic and handed one to each of them. Yassen put his down on the table, wary of the magically summoned coffee, though knowing he shouldn't be. "He likes us." Sirius and Lupin took sips of their drinks. Ian put his on the table with Yassen's clearly he, too, was wary of the coffee.

"But how did you find out about where we are?" Ian asked.

"Harry said he saw Alex sleeping in Yassen's arms. We asked the lady, Wendy I think it was, what suite the two of you were staying in," Remus said.

"And she told you?" Ian asked.

"Well we had to prove that we knew you first, and we did," Sirius said.

"How did you do that? We weren't even checked in under our own names."

"Yeah what's with that?" Sirius asked. "And we used this." He held up a still photograph of the six of them standing in front of Old Trafford Stadium, they were going to watch a Manchester United versus Chelsea game that day and they travelled to Old Trafford to watch the game together.

"I see," Yassen said. He felt uncomfortable that they carried such a picture on their person. It would be terrible if they were to be caught and have such evidence of allies or 'family.' Though a picture did not contain any actual information about the people inside of them, it was still possible to figure out who the people in the picture were. Ian, on the other hand, visible relaxed and drank from the coffee.

"So what's with this mission?" Ian asked.

"Tell us why your names are Etienne, Gregory and Aleksander first," Remus said.

"One of our customers at the bank held a strong grudge against us," Yassen said. "I would not lend him a loan and, apparently he had some rather powerful underground friends. He convinced them to go after us. The bank thought that it would be best that we take a vacation and gave us an all-expense paid trip here along with some temporary identities."

"That's for being a banker?" Sirius asked. "We're body guards and we don't even get into that much trouble."

Ian gave a weak laugh. "Well, shit happens right?" He laughed again this time the others laughing with him, well Yassen trying to that is. It was good enough to pass as genuine, but Ian saw that it was clearly a fake. He felt guilty for lying to his friends, but it was really for the best. Best if they didn't know what was happening. The less they knew the better they would be, not having to worry about him, Alex or even Yassen.

"So, this mission of yours, spill," Ian said, he leaned forward.

"Mikhail wants us to spy on Michael Reeves and Jonathan Stives. He says that they are plotting some dangerous plot that could get millions of people killed and he wants us to find out what it is," Remus said.

"You don't say," Yassen said thoughtfully, leaning backward onto the couch, crossing his legs. "I thought that they both owned and ran charities. They don't seem like bad people."

"You may not know this and you may be shocked and even possibly not believe what we are about to say, but Reeves and Stives run drug cartels. Much like their own mafia. It's crazy what sort of shite these two are involved in behind the scenes."

"And even crazier that they get away with it. According to Mikhail, MI6, CIA and Interpol have been trying to shut them down for years, but can't seem to do so because of economic issues that would occur if that were to happen." Ian and Yassen looked shocked, not genuine of course, Yassen knew that Mikhail was a powerful man and had his connections, both in the wizarding and in the muggle world, and had relayed this information to Ian.

"No way," Ian said. "But the charities . . ."

"All fake, mate," Sirius said. "Bloody bastards, no?"

"Yeah. And to think we donated to those charities!" Ian said. Though really they didn't. They had better things to spend money on, such as equipment, basic living necessities and Alex, of course.

"Well we've got to get going. Stives and Reese have a meeting early tomorrow morning. Harry!" Remus said.

The two boys came out of the room grinning. "Ian can Harry sleep over tonight?"

"I have no problem with it," he glanced at Yassen.

"As long as it's okay with Remus and Sirius, I'm fine with it," Yassen said.

"Sure why not," Sirius said. "Come with us to get your stuff for the night and we'll drop you off again later okay bud?"

Alex and Harry high fived each other and Harry ran towards his uncle's grabbing Remus's hand.

"Remember to bring your games okay?" Alex said.

"'Kay."

"What room are the two of you staying in?" Ian asked.

"Suite 509, five floors down. Not as exquisite as yours," Remus said.

"Aha courtesy of the bank, remember?" Ian said. They nodded and headed out, a very excited Harry following them from behind talking about the Tottenham/West Ham game and all the games that Alex had and how much fun he was going to be having.

"Hey Alex, there's still mac and cheese in the oven, it should still be hot, you still want some?" Ian asked.

Alex nodded rubbing his tummy then walked to the kitchen.

"Do you think this will hinder the mission?" Yassen asked as soon as Alex was away from earshot.

"No," Ian said. "We have someone to take care of Alex if need be."

"But I am certain that similar thoughts about Harry have crossed their minds."

"I guess, but we could do this solo. When Stives and Reese separate from each other and we are certain that they are not going to be together for a long time then we could carry on with our mission. Besides, Remus and Sirius are only here for a reconnaissance mission. Nothing like what we are doing."

"Hmm, if you say so. But there is the chance that they might find out."

"They'll find out eventually, if not through us, through Dumbledore. He will tell them if he thinks that it is necessary."

"Then why do you insist on keeping our occupations and lifestyle a secret? A secret from your closest friends?"

"Because I don't want them to worry. I don't want them to worry about us, about Alex, about anything that relates to us. In addition to all that they worry about their own safety, being body guards and all, and then worrying about Harry," Ian said.

"What about you? You worry about them _and_ us."

"I do, but that's different," Ian said walking into the kitchen. Yassen sighed in defeat and sat down on the couch. Might was well catch the highlights of the Tottenham/West Ham game.


	8. Chapter 8

Going to be succinct and say I messed up and had this chapter written a year ago. I didn't post it though.

Apologies for the time it has taken to update, hopefully you enjoy. Unsure of when my next update will be, but apparently chapter 9 is already partially written.

Chapter 8

Alex first woke up, feeling slightly grumpy as he checked his clock. 7:00 a.m.? That was too early. Especially since he and Harry hadn't gotten to sleep until 2 in the morning. He and Harry had spent the evening watching movies and playing video games. It was good to be able to talk to Harry again. Maybe he and Harry could convince Ian and Yassen to take them to a Chelsea game when Harry was next in Chelsea. He leaned over his bed to see if Harry was still asleep on the sleeping bag they had provided for him. He could see Harry still sound asleep, curled up hugging a pillow tightly. Alex turned around and snuggled closer to his teddy bear. If Harry was going to sleep in then so was he. It wasn't any fun when you woke up before a friend, because then you'd be just plain bored while you waited for your friend to wake up.

"Alex! Harry!" Ian stormed into the room a big smile on his face. Alex feebly threw a pillow at him, which Ian dodged with graceful ease. "Oh come on Alex, it's already 7 in the morning. Rise and shine you two!"

Harry woke with a start, shocked at the sudden noise. Was it time for him to make breakfast already? If he didn't get up now Aunt Petunia would be furious. Then he remembered. He was with Alex. No need to get up this early for a breakfast.

"Ian we're tired!" Alex whined.

"Well, the breakfast buffet closes in an hour, but if you two insist on sleeping in a little longer then I wouldn't mind cooking something up for you two later as your breakfast," Ian said.

The two boys sat up immediately and looked at each other. Ian? Cooking? Harry made a face. He remembered the last time that Ian had tried to cook them something. It had been a simple pizza pocket in a microwave for two minutes. The pizza pocket had exploded right after Ian took them out to cool them. By the way Alex was looking at Harry, he knew, too, what Alex was thinking. Both boys got up and started to get changed quickly. They panicked around the room looking for something to change into.

Ian had quietly left the room smiling. The first thing he had learned about the two boys when they were together was that they hated being woken up early. So, naturally, Ian had to find a strategy to get them out of bed. Strategy number one: Induce fear by threatening to feed them with his cooking. It always worked, especially for breakfasts. After about ten minutes the two boys came out of the room, changed and ready to go to the downstairs restaurant for breakfast. They both wore simple blue jeans and had somehow mix-matched socks. Harry had on a blue and white while Alex had on the other blue and the other white. Harry wore a white long sleeve shirt with a dark blue vest, zipped up half way. His hair was in its usual messy state.

Alex, on the other hand, wore a simple black long sleeve shirt with a white vest zipped all the way up. He wore the Timex watch that he had received from Remus as a Christmas present on his right wrist. He never wore said watch at home though, and, instead, kept it hidden. If Dudley, his aunt, or uncle noticed, it would be taken away from him. The boys looked absolutely adorable standing side by side together. Yassen came out of his room wearing black jeans and a black zip up hoodie with a white shirt underneath.

"C'mon Yassen! We have to go before the breakfast buffet downstairs closes!" Alex said pulling Yassen towards the door.

"What's the problem, we still have 45 minutes, boys," Yassen said. Harry came over to help Alex pull the trained assassin.

"Because if we're late and it closes then Ian's the one cooking breakfast!" Harry yelled. Yassen smiled and let the two boys pull him out the door.

"Hey!" Ian said following. "My cooking can't be that bad!"

They arrived soon at the restaurant, the two boys laughing and playing around as Ian and Yassen ordered what they knew the boys would want to eat. They left the boys at a table, close to a window so they could see the ski hills outside. As they arrived they heard Alex complaining that Harry wasn't speaking French. Harry on the other hand, insisted that he didn't know how to speak the language, though Alex wouldn't believe him.

"Ian! Harry's cheating! He's speaking English!"

"Alex, Harry can't help it. He hasn't learned French."

"How am I supposed to do what you told me to then?"

"Just this one time, it's okay if you speak in English, okay?" Ian said.

"Fine," Alex said. Harry stared at the three of them, confused at why Alex had to speak French but was soon distracted by the food that Ian and Yassen lay out in front of them.

Soon after a wonderful breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, fried rice and their choice of drink, Yassen and Ian had gone separate ways leaving the two boys to play around in the hotel and explore. However, instead of exploring the two had decided to instead lounge around in the lobby. Alex was staring intently at a lot of the female workers around, while Harry played his DSi.

"Alex, why do you keep looking at all these women?" Harry asked after about five more minutes.

"Well, I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but I have an assignment from Ian and Yassen."

"An assignment?"

"Well, I can't really tell you but . . ."

"'Course you can tell me mate! We're the best o' buds!" Harry insisted.

"Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Harry said quietly. He made a cross above his chest where his heart was with his two index fingers.

"Okay, well, Ian and Yassen want me to find them girlfriends and it's my mission to become friends with some of them. That way I can introduce them to Ian and Yassen."

"Why?" Harry asked. "Girls are yucky." He made a face.

"I don't know, maybe they're just lonely or something," Alex said.

"So is this mission why you had to speak French?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, they always surprise me with something, it's really cool sometimes. The one time we went to Russia and they had me speak Russian the whole time, just so I would get used to it."

"That's so cool!" Harry exclaimed. "You think I could learn a language like you?"

"Sure, I guess I could try and help you to learn. I only know a couple though. . ."

"Which one's do you know?"

"French, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish, but they're trying to teach me German right now."

"Well, I'll learn German with you that way I won't feel too far behind, and then maybe you can teach me the other languages some other times!"

"Deal! But first, why don't you help me find Ian and Yassen some girlfriends."

Harry laughed, but agreed. They spent the half hour searching for the right firls for Yassen and Ian. Some were too short, others too skinny, some wore too much make up, others had weird colored hair, some didn't look pretty enough etc. Finally two women approached them, both were workers at the hotel; they were wearing the uniform after all, and seemed genuinely worried about the two boys.

"Are you two lost?" one woman asked giving them a big smile. She was pretty, had bright blond hair and shining green eyes.

"No," Alex said. He nudged Harry, and Harry quickly understood.

"No?" The other woman said. She had dark brown hair and matching brown eyes.

"No, we're just waiting for our uncles."

The blond woman, Wendy (Alex had read her name tag), suddenly seemed to recognize the young boy. He was the boy asleep in the arms of the one handsome gentleman as she helped them to find their suites. Oh the one man, Etienne Ridier, she would not forget him; after all, he had the looks of an angel. And his brother Gregory, he didn't look too bad himself.

"Oh, are you Aleks?" she asked.

"Umm, yeah, do you know my uncle?" Alex said.

"Yes I helped, them check into the hotel," she said giving them a big smile. "You were sound asleep in your uncle's arms though."

"Yeah I was pretty tired," he said, remembering. "It was a really long plane ride!"

"I bet it was," Wendy said. "We'll be right back okay?"

"Okay," Alex said. Wendy pulled her colleague away.

"Emily, this is the nephew of those two really cute customers that checked in the other day."

"The Ridiers?" she asked her eyes wide. Emily couldn't take her eyes off of the one carrying the young boy. He was breathtaking.

Wendy nodded and smiled. Maybe if they could make friends with the Aleks boy they could meet the two most handsome customers that had checked into their hotel.

~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~

"What do you think of them Harry?" Alex asked.

"They seem really pretty, do you think Yassen and Ian would want to date them?"

"I don't know," Alex said. "But they seem really nice. Let's try."

"Okay," Harry said.

"Oh and Harry one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Ian's name is Etienne and Yassen's is Gregory. You have to remember that okay? It's part of the mission."

Harry's eyes went wide but nodded in agreement. This was so cool!

Wendy and the other woman, Emily, came back and started to talk to the young boys. Their conversation varied from who Harry was, why they were there, hobbies, stuff they like and what it was like for Alex to live with his two uncles.

"Well sometimes, I really wish I had a mum, but Etienne and Gregory are really nice and caring. They teach me a lot of cool stuff."

"What kind of cool stuff?" Emily asked.

"Well, Gregory taught me karate, and Etienne and Gregory helped me learn some different languages."

"What are your uncles like?" Wendy asked.

"Well, Etienne's really out going and he's really nice. But now that I think about it they're both really nice. He's a bit of a jokester and he's really funny, but he can't cook if his life depended on it. Gregory though, he's really quiet and serious about a lot of things, but he can be really funny too if he wants to be and he's really nice. They're both really smart and athletic, but Greg's the only one that can cook."

"How come you never call them uncle?" Emily asked.

"They don't like being called uncle. They think it's weird," Aleks said.

"Aleks! Harry!" The boys looked behind them to see Ian waving towards them as they entered the lobby. Yassen was following Ian at a steady pace, looking at the two women in front of the two young boys.

"Ah, Mr. Ridier," Wendy said. "I was just talking to your young nephew here and his friend. To keep them company while they waited for you."

"Thank you, Wendy," Ian said. "How about I take you to dinner tonight? For all the trouble that these two might have caused you."

"That's too much Mr. Ridier, it was honestly a pleasure," she said, blushing furiously.

"It won't be too much of a problem," Yassen added. "Harry's uncles are here as well, and I am sure that they will be more than willing to watch over little Alek's as we treat you tonight. After all, you two ladies must work extremely hard, no?"

"Well, yes we do–" Emily started.

"And without a doubt babysitting two young boys for the amount of time that we were gone is not in your job description," Yassen said.

"It was only for fifteen minutes," Wendy said.

"Aha, but you see Madame LaRoux, we insist. After all, what may have been fifteen minutes can feel like an hour. I'm sure you had fun with our boys, but come on. All little night out never hurt anyone. How about we have a double date? I'll take you," Ian said getting closer to her. "And my darling brother shall take your beautiful colleague. What time do you get off?" Ian asked.

"Umm, seven tonight."

"Well pick you up at 8. It's a double date then. See you tonight loves!" Ian said, pulling Harry and Alex away from the two ladies, who waved enthusiastically at them.

They went to the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor.

"Yassen, that's not our floor number . . ." Alex said.

"We're dropping you off at Harry's suite for a while. Remus said that they were there for the day, just relaxing."

"Oh okay," Alex said. "But what about my stuff?"

"We'll drop it there later okay? Before Yassen and I go for our double date."

"Sure, don't forget all my important stuff though." They walked the two boys over to where Remus and Sirius were staying. Harry ran into the room, and led Alex to where his room was. The room wasn't as exquisite as theirs. It was smaller but definitely better than a normal hotel room. After all, this was a top of the line hotel. There was no way that the rooms would be mediocre.

"Hey Remus could you do us a favor?" Ian said as Remus appeared.

"Uhh sure," he said.

"Mind watching Alex for tonight? Yassen and I have a date."

"With . . . each other?" Sirius said, slightly confused. He had thought they were straight. Then again, he and Remus had never outright asked, merely assumed.

"No! With these two women we picked up earlier," Ian said, smiling. Yassen was behind him and he could only imagine the look on Yassen's face.

"I have better tastes in men," the assassin said, smiling. "That is, if I went that way."

Ian gave him a dirty look but continued on what he was trying to say earlier. "Anyway, we were hoping that maybe Alex could stay the night here?"

"Sure, why not. We'll take care of the little devils tonight."

"Thanks guys, now we've got to go. I've got to find for something that Yassen can look presentable in."

"Mind your words, Ian," Yassen said toying with his cellphone. "I have proof, of course, of who the real slob in this 'family' is."

"You don't mean . . ."

"Yes I do mean. . ." Sirius and Remus watched as Ian suddenly paled. Yassen was the first to leave, and then followed by Ian who was stuttering words/curses, at the Russian. On the other hand Yassen seemed to no longer be paying attention to the blubbering man, as they stepped into the elevator.

"What a weird couple," Sirius said. Remus laughed. What a weird couple indeed.


End file.
